Huang Shan

Mt. Huang Shan is the stereotypical Chinese mountain and is perhaps the inspiration to most mountain paintings in China. It is this way we good reason as the sunrise and surrounding mist make the mountain peaks appear as they are floating in the clouds.

The main routes up and down the mountain are the eastern steps, western steps, and the cable car. We opted for the “easy” 7.5 km hike up steep, icy steps to the summit area. We wanted to hike down the western steps; however, by the time we finished exploring the summit area we didn’t have enough time to descend safely and we were exhausted, so we took the pleasurable cable car to the base.


Bright Summit is the highest peak of the mountain at 1860 meters; however, the Beginning-to-Believe and Jade Screen peaks we far more spectacular. The trails were covered with ice that made walking around the edges a bit difficult. Jason nearly took the express way to one of the view points; however, he managed to recover safely and got some nice photos.

Our time in China has come to an end and it is time to change hemispheres. Our flight leaves from Hangzhou, which is apparently an important tourist city in China; although it is a pretty city with a nice waterfront we didn’t find anything special to warrant a trip just to visit the city.