We got the bus and I tried on the bus to book a dorm room, however the website only accepts Chinese credit cards and ID so that was a no go, ah well we will see! On this bus I was sat next to an older Chinese woman, 60+ if not more, who with her husband had rented a camper and were driving from their home in the north to hainan, the most southwest point, she very nicely explained all about it, making me very envious! 20days each way according to her, not bad!
Getting off the bus we were at the entrance and after paying our 230rmb entrance fee, we had a choice, cable car or walking, we chose walking, which we knew to be a pretty grueling walk up the 1800m peak! We started out and Mina straight away hit a wall, feeling dizzy and needing a goodness after not 40mins, however after a bit of food and some water we were on our way again through beautiful mountain scenery. We walked for three hours and made the top of the cable car way with amazing views down the mountain and across. All the way up we were overtaking porters carrying yokes with huge quantities of vegetables, food and drink in buckets and packs, all the things needed to support the big hotels at the top and the huge volume of tourists . I overheard a Chinese guy being told they get 200rmb, £20, a trip for carrying huge boxes up. Amazing, and quite annoying when they block the whole path! I wondered why they didn't just run a cable car or two of food at the end of the day and early morning but apparently not... Strange...
As soon as we reached the top of the cable way there were so many people it was crazy, especially considering this was the quiet season! It seems mot took the cable way up and then wander about at super slow speeds in huge groups clogging all the paths! very chinese! We decided to leave the tallest peak until tomorrow skirted around looking for a place to stay, a process of continually rising and dropping a few hundred meters into an out of various valleys around the mountain top. The top of huangshan, far from a peak, is a whole Forrest of peaks with paths trails and hotels nestled in amongst them. Huangshan was also the supposed motivation for the avatar landscape, although truth be told I think zhangjiajie I went to before looks much more like it...
We walked around to the north cloud sea area and found the most famous hotel there, the North Sea hotel, and after asking there (full) went to the one opposite who had only suites left, at 3000rmb (£300) a room, ouch! I asked if they had anything else and they said they had a "many people room" for 120 a person each. I thought it sounded cheap but would be an adventure so accepted. Considering it was more expensive than our private clean twin last night it showed just how expensive the mountaintop places were. We showed our passports before being walked around the building to the back to a grubby little entrance to the chefs toilets, past the chefs toilets, just past, were two medium sized rooms, each of which had 11 bunk beds in for a total of 21 beds!!! We shared the two cubicle chefs toilets between the rooms and there were no showers but hey it was cheap! when we arrived only a few people though which was good, In for a penny I thought and paid the woman for our nights stay and then went out to take some pictures and get some food. We went a restaurant and asked to see the menu but were soon scared away, 4 dishes at 80-120rmb each was a poor quality £60 meal, fair enough I guess as everything was hand ported up the damn mountain.
We found some very overpriced snacks and had a rice ball and a beer on top of the mountain as the sun went behind the mountain and the moon came out, lovely! We then decided to get some instant noodles for dinner, we went to the first shop and asked and they said no, we went to a second shop, more out of the way and they didn't have any on display, but when we asked they said they did have some, behind the counter hidden away, for 15rmb each instead of the usual 3rmb. It was still much cheaper than eating in the restaurant though so we agreed, then the man said they weren't actually allowed to sell them, to push tourists into expensive restaurants, so he asked for a back pack, took it out back and came back three noodles heavier, 45rmb lighter we left the shop and walked back. We went outside to eat our contraband smuggled noodles sitting on a wall. After we ate we were sitting on the wall when two Chinese boys came and introduced themselves asking if I spoke Chinese, we got chatting, they are from hangzhou, and speaking chinese, Japanese and even a bit of English!! The girls retired to bed first and left me chatting with them for another half hour as a couple more friends joined them, and a few people came to listen to the foreigner speaking chinese. we all then decided to hit the sack as to get to the sunrise watching place means a 4am start!!! I'm in bed now and the place has filled up, now there are 16 or so people, I can't imagine what it's like full! Not too bad though except a couple of snorers! Night all!
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