HuangShan 黄山 in the summer

HuangShan 黄山 in the summer 

Huangshan or literal translation "Yellow Mountain" is located in Anhui province, not too far from Shanghai. It is a World Heritage site.
It is one of the most famous mountains in China.
Looks very much like those Chinese paintings of mountains with  plenty of exposed rock and some outcroppings of trees.

We started off from Shanghai, taking a 5 hour bus ride to a town called "Tunxi" where we spent a night.
Tunxi has an "Ancient street" where the place is set up like ancient China.
They also have a "Tea Alley" which sells tea at really good prices from around the Anhui region.
Great place to buy tea as it is so much cheaper than in Shanghai.
Some local varieties are green tea MaoFeng 毛峰， houkui 猴魁(a very big leaf tea) and Chrysanthemum.

From Tunxi, we took a cab ride to the town of Huangshan at the base of Huangshan mountain.
We had booked a hotel for two nights but in retrospect, should have booked a night each at different hotels at the top.
Huangshan is definitely not luggage-friendly.
Do not bring any big luggage up as it is just lots of stair climbing.
We didnt know this so we ended up leaving our luggage with a store proprietor at her bedroom, for a small price(around 10 RMB a night).
Fortunately, she told us and we listened to her.
It was scary leaving our luggage with a stranger but the alternative was a lot worse.
What we should have done is to leave our luggage at the hotel in Tunxi and collect it when we get back.

At Huangshan, we had to change to another taxi to take us into the park itself where the cable car is.
Be sure to get there early before the crowd.

Basically, a cable car takes us up and then we walk up literally hundreds of stairs everywhere.
Dont think I have climbed more stairs before and since then!
It was all worth it though.

Like many Chinese places, the place was jam packed at the cable car location.
As we went off further, the crowds thinned out.

Huangshan is like seeing the Chinese landscape paintings in real life.

Our hotel, Yupinglou, can be seen in the photo below, the one with the red roof.

There are some places which sell food at the top of the mountain but are pricey of course.
We brought some snacks and instant noodles from a supermarket at Tunxi.

There are some railings along the various trails, however, people can go around.
Lots of Korean tourists were there and they seemed fearless of the edges.
Many of them were walking so close to the edge.
We heard a Chinese tour guide say that the previous day, a Korean went too close to the edge and fell off.

Notice the long climb up with the throngs of people.

 If you do want some luxury ride...

There is a section of the mountain which is covered with moist fog

After 5pm, when the cable car shuts down, the mountain became devoid of people.
Seems like most tourists are there for the day.
That was the best time to take in the views, late evening and early morning.

We left Huangshan after 3 days, legs painfully sore but well worth all the stress of getting there.
It is quite an amazing place to visit.

Hope you had fun reading this!