2000 Newsletter - Mt Huangshan (aka Yellow Mountain)
On the Yellow Mountain
Landing in Tunxi, we realised that we were in a very different China from the one we had seen up to this point. The airport definitely wasn't new. It was a pity that it was night time and so it wasn't practical to take any photos. The restaurant at our hotel was closed, but at least they managed to rustle up some egg fried rice and a beer.
The following morning we left to start our trip to Mt Huangshan, which we quickly learnt was better known as the Yellow Mountain. Our journey took us through the countryside. Small ramshackle villages gave way to a patchwork of beautifully laid out fields. Every scrap of land, including the road verges, was cultivated. The villages at the foot of the mountain are normally closed to non-Chinese visitors, but we had a special permit to visit two of them. One of the villages had been the set of a film (Judou) which Brian and I saw some time ago. Much of the set was still intact and had obviously become a minor tourist attraction. A highlight of this morning was watching the children coming home for lunch crossing the ridges between the paddy fields.
In the afternoon, we carried on toward the mountain, reaching it just in time for the last cable car of the day. If you have ever seen Chinese paintings of the tops of mountains peeking out above the clouds, they are of the Yellow Mountain. What no one told us is that most of the time, the mountain is in the middle of the clouds! We reached the top of the cable car and then discovered we had to walk for an hour to reach our hotel. We were a very weary bunch of travellers when we finally got there.
On the Yellow Mountain
Next morning, we were due to get up at 4.30am to be able to see the sun rise over the mountain. It was obvious that the likelihood of this was minimal, so Brian and I, along with most of the group, opted to stay in bed. As it turned out, there was nothing to see, in fact our national guide admitted that he had been there ten times and only seen it once.
After lunch, we returned to the cable car and drove a short distance to our hotel for the night. Undaunted by our previous attempts to dine outside our hotels, this evening the group tried again. The main difference this time was that we had received recommendations about a particular restaurant from other English speakers at the hotel. The restaurant was inauspicious, well lit and obviously well used by the locals. We sat down and immediately the staff appeared with their phrase books. As advised, we agreed an amount per head and then we discussed what we would like to eat. For £2.50 per head, we had the best meal of our trip. There was sufficient to eat, but not too much. Some dishes were spicy, we had a wonderful sweet (and sour) pork. Every plate was cleared. We ordered some beer and were told that it would be £2, which we assumed was for a bottle since we had been paying between £1 and £2 for a can in our hotels. It turned out that the price was for four bottles of beer. This meal, and the friendliness of the staff, more than made up for the inauspicious trip that we had up the Yellow Mountain.
As we boarded our coach for the journey from Tunxi to Hangzhou, none of us had any idea what was in store. We were told to expect a four hour journey, so settled down with our books. The roads were twisty and narrow. Many times we came up behind lorries and had to wait until they turned off our road before we could get up speed. Many vehicles overtook our old bus in dangerous moves reminiscent of Indian drivers. A few times, we met a new road in the progress of being built. This meant that we had to drive through mud. Many of us wondered if we would become caught in the mud and have to push the bus out. Fortunately, that did not happen. Four hours became five. Five hours became six. Then we were told that we would be at our hotel in half an hour, but it didn't happen. Eventually we reached our destination seven hours after we set out and were rushed to our now very late lunch. We were obviously being prepared for the delays we would experience on trains on our return to the UK.