wheyy i’m in hangzhou! i’ve read a lot about this place, supposed to be really beautiful. and people i’ve talked to say it leaves a good impression. seems a good place to chill out for a almost a week before the busyness of shanghai. i also want to stay here for six days so i can get a real feel for it. i was in huang shan city yesterday, and i was in the area for four days odd, but because i climbed the mountain in the middle, i’ve been moving from place to place a fair bit.
the mountain was amazing. i headed out on thursday morning on a bus from the hostel at about six in the morning. we got there around half seven, and a chinese couple took pity on my confused face and let me tag along with them until we’d reached the walking area. we took a cable car up to it. i was on the eastern slope, and at that moment the mist and clouds weren’t too bad. it had stunning views. i don’t know what classes as a mountain range, but it must’ve been one. on the map it had names like “beginning to believe peak” and “monkey overlooks the sea peak”. i’ll be honest, for all the imaginative names i couldn’t pick out the animalistic features for beans. but it was no less incredible. i had to work to avoid the tour guides. they have portable speakers and are constantly shouting at people to move on from one peak to the next. i’m so glad i wasn’t with one of them. i find it strange that i felt closer to ‘nature’ and ‘the elements’ when on the Great Wall, a man-made object, than i did when i was on a mountain. but being so close to the precipice and being able to come within a few feet of a sheer drop wakes you up to reality.
i had to spend a night at the expensive hotel i.e 120 yuan/12 pounds for a dorm (im used to paying 40 yuan max) so i could see the sunrise, but it was well worth it. i got up at half four to gurantee my spot at Bright Summit. however i was slightly dissapointed to share my spiritual enlightenment with several hundred other excitable tourists. but i’ll let them off since a few of them saved my life by stopping me go over the edge in my eagerness to find a vantage point. sunrise was beautful. of course. the colours moved from a deep, translucent red, to a firey orange, and then to a strong sunburst yellow.
once it became too bright to stare at, most people went back to bed to sleep. but i seized my chance to have the mountain to myself and moved down the western side. all was quite on the western front. it was much more impressive too. the steep, almost vertical steps moved down through the mountain valleys and you could see the change in bare-faced granite peaks, to forested slopes. i met a chinese family on the way up the Heavenly Capital Peak, and stayed with them on the way down the other side. i was very popular after speaking a little bit of mandarin. its official, that the people of the chinese nation now have more photos of me in china than i do. my favourite was “hey boy! i take photo with you!”.
i got down to the bottom of the mountain and went to the glacier boulders. since i hadnt had room in my bag for a towel, i had my first shoulder under the cold mountain water, under a boulder. but i couldn’t handle the cold for long, so instead of smelling ‘mountain fresh’, my natural body odour and the spring water combined to create ‘fresh-water fish’ scent. afterwards i got the bus back into the city, booked my bus ticket to hangzhou, and then went downtown.
downtown huangshan city is cool. it has one famous street called lao jie, literally, ancient street. and down there you can find most of the tourists, domestic and foreign. i’d been there a few times so i went to my usual dumpling spot, and then wandered amongst the standard tea shops and artifact shops.
but i have to rush. internet is running out and this american couple i met on the bus here want to get some food.
i’ll write soon!
loves up!xx
Tags: Hangzhou, Huang Shan
