China 26

Huang Shan- Yellow Mountains- Anhui province

From Yangshuo we took a plane to Huang Shan- the yellow mountains- we landed in a deserted airport, no information point, no tourist office, no trains, no busses, no shops, no staff- zilch, niente, nada! I’d lost my “Rough Guide” in Hong-Kong and Laurene’s “Guide du Routard” did not cover the Yellow Mountains… There were literally only 3 people in the airport- a lady selling maps of the region (but only in Chinese and we had no clue what the Chinese characters for “yellow mountain” were)… and a couple of men chatting with her. None spoke any English, not even a little. One of them offered to take us somewhere (we could not establish where) for €15 but that seemed like quite a lot of money considering the average cost of a meal to date had been €1. We contemplated the alternatives (none) and decided to board his car hoping that he’d figured where two Western tourists‘d want to go- holding on tightly to the broken seatbelts as the driver overtook other cars recklessly at incredible speed & against traffic flow, was when we first questioned whether a driving license was in fact a requirement to drive a car in rural China. The man drove us for two hours (the €15 fee started to make sense) and dropped us in front of a hotel where, again, no English was spoken (at one point my friend Laurene thought she would actually have to mime “toilet paper” to the receptionist in order that some be provided in the room- useful tip if you are traveling through China: always, always, always carry toilet paper with you!). Up at 6am the next day, we boarded a local bus to the mountain. The bus dropped us off at the funicular’s entrance where we queued with hundreds of Chinese tourists. The Chinese have a different conception of personal space: regardless of the amount of available space they will queue right behind you, quite literally sticking to you, following your every step- you simply can not distance yourself (which is fine until someone starts spiting (the Chinese spit to purify themselves)). Upon reaching the mountain we were immediately taken by it beauty- I had never seen anything like it. The mountain range is part of the UNESCO world heritage since 1990 and is one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists (who gather into tight groups following a guide speaking loudly through a speakerphone). Thankfully, the mountains are vast enough that isolation can be found. In fact, we found a little more isolation than we bargained for! (click on next picture to find out more)