Near the town of Huangshan is the 154 square km Mount Huang mountain range, a series of 36 jagged granite peaks lined with unique pine trees. The tops of the mountains are above the clouds and the spectacular views have inspired art and literature throughout Chinese history.
Literally translated as the Yellow Mountains it’s reached by a 6-7 hour, near vertical hike, or by a 10 minute cable car ride. Yep, I took the cable car.
At ¥230 it’s one of the most expensive tickets I’ve seen in China, but you can see the money is being well spent at the top. Unlike some places I’ve been the cable cars are in good working order, the walkways are solidly attached to the cliffs and there is no litter or graffiti. There are actually 4 cable cars and they cost ¥80 each way. The two most popular go up the front of the range, one is a shortcut at the side and the other takes you up the side. At the advice of a random diner from last night we chose the lesser travelled route up the side with the intention of walking the opposite way to everyone else to the front of the range.
The three main peaks are Bright Summit, Capital of Heaven and Lotus Peak, all just over 1800m high. Paths between the peaks are unobtrusively attached to the vertical sides of the mountains and mostly feature steep steps with clearly defined photo stops and the occasional stone pagoda for a little sit down. There are also a couple of hotels on the top, which don’t seem too in keeping with the area, and a third being built for which we had to pause briefly whilst they blasted some rocks for the foundations.
Towards the end of the day we reached a climb called the One Hundred Rung Ladder. Exhausted I looked up to the top but it just disappeared into the rapidly approaching clouds. Thinking it’s only a hundred steps, I set off. 217 steps later I reached the top, cursing every one of the last 117 risers.
From the top of the highest peaks it’s possible to look down at the lesser peaks poking through the solid white clouds, which gives the area its other name, the West Sea. Depending on how you look at it, unfortunately we missed this as it was a bright sunny day for most of the time we were up there and the clouds didn’t roll in until it was nearly dark. I say unfortunately as a quick GIS shows how good it can look: http://www.google.com/images?q=Mount+Huangshan. This area is cited by director James Cameron as the inspiration for the world of Pandora in the 2009 film Avatar.
The pine trees here are unique and known as the Huangshan Pine. Some trees are over 1500 year old, the most famous being the Welcoming-Guests Pine at the main front entrance. There was a bit of a bun-fight to get a photo here, but just as we arrived the rain started and all the Chinese screamed and ran for cover, leaving all 4 westerners on the mountain to calmly snap a nice clear photo.
