A Climb Up Yellow Mountain

Today began with an early start at 7:30 AM to drive the four to five hours to Yellow Mountain (Huangshan Mountain is the Chinese name). Though we had to practice our Chinese sounds on the drive, otherwise it was peaceful. The scenery during the trip was beautiful with the countryside passing by my window. There were many farms built into the side of the hills, and the farmers were always out working by hand in their fields. We stopped for lunch at a place called Mr. Cheng’s Restaurant, and then finished our drive at the base of the mountain range. Half of the group chose to ride the cable car up to the hotel, but twelve of us were brave enough to decide to climb the 6.5 kilometer path (about 5000-6000 steps I think) to the top. I was especially excited since I like this type of challenge. We all had our ponchos on since it is constantly damp and often raining during the climb, but after a bit everyone had them off because it didn’t ever rain much on us. The picture below shows a part of the climb.

As everyone spread out during the climb, I picked up my pace and ended up alone for the majority of the climb. It was a fun climb because of the view, all the waterfalls everywhere, constantly dodging the porters, the cool moist air, and the challenge of it. The picture below is of me towards the top of the climb.

I ended up finishing in one hour and thirty-two minutes, and then exploring some other paths before waiting for others to finish so I could have help finding our hotel. One of the many porters is pictured below. These men carry all supplies (like water, laundry, fire extinguishers, propane, etc.) up the path and carry anything that needs to go down the path. This is a job I would not want.

We stayed at the top of one of the mountains in the Xi Hai Hotel, which was quite nice and offered beautiful views. (Another perk was getting to watch the BBC on TV—but more on that later…) After my long climb, I was ready to eat a quick dinner and get to bed. It was a wonderful day though in a very beautiful place. Pictured below is one of the many rewarding views after a tough climb.