Huangshan: Mountains, Coffee, Hearts, and Bakeries

(Deanna)

This morning we woke up at 07:15 and went to breakfast afterwards we all hopped into the van and went off to Huangshan Mountain an hour and a half ride away. We all seemed to fall asleep on the way but woke up as we neared the mountain. On the way up to the parking lot, we endured very windy, curvy roads with very little visibility which frightened us all. There was just fog, fog and more fog and we did not know what to expect that would come in our direction as we were in the van. In getting out of the van, I was slightly dizzy from all the fast twists and turns.

Gondola to Huangshan Mountain

We were calm as we went on a gondola that fit us all (bigger and seemly more comforting than the two-seater cable cars that brought us up to Snow Mountain) but the comfort for all of us lessened as we went higher. Michael and Patty seemed uncomfortable with the height and the fact that we couldn’t see our surroundings made things both mysterious and slightly scary. In getting off the gondola, the little visibility persevered as we hiked up a mountain that was about 1,800 meters high.

As I talked with Philip, our guide, about the structure of the stairs and the foliage of the mountain, the group disappeared in the thick fog behind me. When they appeared, I realised that they were taking pictures of what was visible or appearing in front of them. We climbed up 600 meters of stairs and then climbed up more stairs to see the outlines and shapes of the mountain. We all continued to take more photos of the mountain that we’ve seen in pictures but not fully seen because the early morning rain and fog. It was a bummer to not get the view of the mountain that was hoped for. After much walking, we sat and ate an early lunch on the top of the mountain in a hotel and after a needed break we ventured to go back to the gondola. I kept telling myself while walking up tons of stairs that I have ran enough in my life that climbing up stairs should not be so difficult and I kept walking despite my pace of walking probably being the reason why I was so tired. We finally reached the gondola and sat back down to see rocks beside the gondola looking like paintings, and seeing gondolas passing by that appeared out of the thick, grey fog. Once we started approaching the car, we all had a sense of relief because we no longer had to be in pain from all the walking.

By the time we got back to the city of Huangshan, it was about 2:30 pm and we were given hours of free time to get coffee and look around the stores. We decided to go to a coffee shop and relax. Patty, Michael and I sat and ordered coffee and Brandon brought us playing cards. After a while of playing elementary “Go Fish” and me doing a horrible job remembering how to play the game (and losing...) Veronica and Brandon came back and bought some souvenirs and then we all decided to play Hearts. In this being the first time I actually played Hearts after watching everyone play over the course of a few days, I won the first time playing not having any idea what I was doing. After the second time, I got the hang of the game and did well playing. After 2 hours of playing, we decided to go get dinner. After dinner, we headed off to the “Super Bakery” and got some desserts. The bakery was full of Taro Tarts, and sandwiches, Chinese cakes and bread. We shared desserts and we went back to the hotel. I hadn’t quite realised that after the day of walking, climbing, card playing and dessert browsing/eating that we returned to the hotel so early.

These two weeks of travelling have been busy, awe inspiring, full of surprises and tomorrow we get to finally situate ourselves in Hangzhou which will be quite wonderful. Right now, we have the time to enjoy the evening before we head off to Hangzhou. I look forward to telling you more about everything soon!

Much love,
Deanna M. Biddy