Last January we happened to travel to The Yellow Mountain region. Our friends gave us a ride from Hangzhou to the small town of Tangkou, located at the foot of the Mt. Huangshan (the road took 4,5 hrs). We stayed overnight in Sinotrans Huangshan Jianquo Hotel, and the next morning our friends dropped us off at the bus station to take a bus going to eastern cable car station Yurgu.
The hotel staff advised us that it had snowed last night on the top of the mountain, so we purchased ice cleats for our boots and some cup noodles to save time on lunch.
It was gloomy and cloudy at the foot of the mountain, the cable car was shrouded in mist, and you could only see the cables going off into, well, nowhere. Suddenly, after a few minutes the fog disappeared and we found ourselves in a kingdom of light, sun, blue skies and snowy mountains.
The route was the following: Beginning- to -believe Peak, then through Baihai and Xihai hotels heading to the eastern canyon and up to Cloud dispelling Pavilion, then to the south along the canyon edge and back to the eastern cable car station.
A large part of the eastern canyon and the peaks were closed to the public, which is a disadvantage of going in the winter season. On the bright side, there were no tour groups and just a few visitors in general, who were mostly in the most popular observation decks and around the hotels. Most of the time we were enjoying our solitude, walking through the snow-covered fairy forest.
By the Purple cloud peak we came across a flock of monkeys. Well, they actually surrounded us like a military convoy – some monkeys blocked our way, some were on guard and a big one, probably the Alfa, blocked us from the back. He had a vicious smile.
While we were thinking what to give them to make them go away, or when we had our last tetanus shots, the tribe was slowly approaching. Luckily, we noticed a local worker shoveling the snow and called for help. The monkyes disappeared as he came closer with his shovel. In the afternoon the fog started to cover the peaks, changing the panoramic views every minute.
After making a loop we returned to the cable car, and around 4 pm (the ticket office’s closing time) we headed down to the parking lot. Four hours later we were back in Hangzhou.
Continue reading here: Yunnan Along the Old Burma Road
