We arrived at Huangshan, at a relatively small town called Tunxi (by small I mean it has a population of less than 1 million - this is China, after all). We barely survived our walk (being a pedestrian in China is fraught with danger, something one quickly realizes...) from the bus station (which was located outside the town centre) to the picturesque old town, where our hotel was located.
Our hotel was actually a youth hostel, but that was mostly reflected by the low price. The place itself was absolutely lovely - located in a traditional Qin dynasty house, just off the main street (which is named Old Street, quite appropriately). The interior is nothing short of stunning, with traditional furniture, wonderfully decorated rooms - and all this for about 20 Euros a night? Add to this very friendly staff, and it all amounts to an absolute bargain! (the only drawback was very slow internet, but then again that's pretty much standard in China, I suppose it's due to the Great FireWall...)
We started our exploration of the Huanshan area with a place called Honcun - which is famous as it was used as a location for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (one of my favourite Chinese action/fantasy movies). We got the tourist bus there (which cost about 7 Euros, not an insignificant amount...), and gaped at the 10 Euros entrance fee ! (what, an entrance fee to a village!?). Anyway, we grudgingly paid up and entered.
The place is a real stunner, no other word for it. The first sight of the village, with a narrow stonepath crossing a tranquil lake to the village, with a beautiful bridge in the middle of it, just takes one's breath away. This was one of the location used for Crouching Tiger (etc)... The mist lingering above the lake and village just added to the atmosphere.
The village itself is just as stunning - there are no modern buildings at all in the village, and the houses that have been restored have been done so with great taste. It's just like taking a step back in time - well, the hordes of tourists do sort of detract from the experience a bit (but not much, actually, as the village is pretty big).
The other top spot in the village for wannabe photographers like me is Moon lake, a beautiful little pond in the middle of the village, surrounded by beautiful Qin-era houses. The reflections in the perfectly still pond add to the atmosphere... Even the news of Donald Trump having won the presidential elections didn't detract from our enjoyment of the place, now that's saying something!
We then carried on to a bamboo forest, located not too far from Honcun (we negotiated a reasonable-seeming fare with a local taxi driver - he probably earned a week's salary or something, though!). The bamboo forest is another location for Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon (you may remembe an aerial combat up in the trees, in a thick bamboo forest). It was actually pretty hard work, but the views certainly made up for the effort.
The walk took us through a very nice little village (which wasn't actually touristy at all, a nice change from Honcun). We were also treated to the rather impressive sight of locals (including some rather diminutive-looking women) carrying up to three bamboo tree trunks along some pretty steep paths (I can also confirm those bamboo tree trunks are pretty darn heavy, even one of them!). Respect, I say!
After our little walk, we were treated to some amusement as a big group of ladies (most of a certain age...) got completely obsessed about posing for pictures with me and Nick (especially Nick - I guess the Chinese ladies must find his grey hair and the air of wisdom it gives him a turn-on or something - not that I'm jealous or anything!). Anyway, posing for pictures with Chinese people was something we got pretty used to by the end of our trip....
We finished the day walking around Tunxi old street - a very nice little street actually. It's very touristy, but the shops are pretty classy places selling authentic (well, at least authentic seeming!) antiquities and handicrafts - not your average mass produced touristy trinkets on sale here. We got grabbed a pretty average meal at one of the (very touristy) restaurants on Old Street.
The next day, we continued our Qin-Era (actually the villages date back to the 11th century, but their glory days coincided with the Qin dynasty during the 18th century) village exploration with Xidi, another stunning village (with a hefty entrance fee, but hey, we were getting used to it by now). Actually both Honcun and Xidi are Unesco world heritage sites - quite rightly so.
The entry into Xidi is a bit less dramatic than into Honcun, but not by much. There is a lake, again, with a nice red boat floating in front of the village (somehow I suspect it was put there to enhance tourists' photos, although maybe I'm just being cynical). The ornamental entrance gateway is pretty impressive, as well.
We started our visit by hiking through some rice fields up to a small hill, from where we were treated to some pretty stunning views over the village, with the rice plantations providing a nice forefront for those inevitable photos... Again, we had the honour to pose for some pictures with some Chinese ladies... (this time they were high school students!)
The village itself is predictably picturesque, but maybe a bit less so that Honcun (or maybe that's just since we visited Honcun first, hard to tell - but then again there were no Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon scenes shot in Xidi). It's a bit more spread out than Honcun, which means smaller concentrations of tourists. We ended having a rather delicious lunch in a traditional house, with a nice lady cooking up some local traditional food for us... (I'm pretty sure the prices were not "local", though...).
After Xidi, we decided to head to another village, Pingshan. It's a bit less famous than Xidi and Honcun, but far less touristy (I mean, c'mon, there wasn't even an entrance fee). So basically it was a very nice place to stroll around, with its traditional houses, and a nice river flowing through the village. A little bit less picturesque than the Xidi and Honcun, but the lack of tourists and feeling of authenticity made up for that.
One funny thing about the place was that it was basically overrun by young people painting - and very beautifully at that. Very odd - I guess they were all art students or something. Maybe Pingshan is a "designated artist village" or something. Anyway, there are certainly a lot of pretty spots to paint over there! We also checked out a pretty interesting Taoist temple (actually, that would, I believe, be the first temple visited so far in mainland China).
Back in Tunxi, we had dinner with an Australian lady we'd met at our hotel (who gave us some good hints for how to tackle the Yellow Mountain, which we were planning to do the next day), and a German lady she'd been travelling with. We found a nice restaurant (with an interesting concept whereby they display all their dishes on a long table, and you just jot down what you want to eat on a peace of paper - maybe better than those often badly translated menus actually...)
The next day, then, we were tackling the famous Yellow Mountain (Huangshan). That is the main reason, after all, to come to this part of China (although those stunning villages we'd seen in themselves would for sure have made the trip worthwhile). What has to be said here is that the Chinese authorities are pretty good at making the most (financially) of their national treasures (be they natural, or man-made).
First of all, getting to Huanshan is a bit of an expedition involving some rather expensive buses (nearly 10 Euros one way). Then, there is the entrance fee to the national park (about 30 Euros). Then, there is the cable car up to the top (walking up to the top takes at least 4 hours, and the same to walk down, which basically means you need to spend the night if you actually want to walk around the mountain top) - another 10 Euros or so one way. You get the picture ?
Well, again though, I don't regret at all paying the 80 Euros or whatever it cost altogether... The initial sights once up at the top were a bit disappointing for a a couple of reasons. First of all, the hordes of tourists at the top (things got better, thankfully, once away from the cable car station). The other reason - there was a lot of mist, which meant visibility was about 5 meters max. So things didn't start well.
Thankfully, we decided to walk on, since once we got out of the mists... Wow! To call the landscapes stunning is a bit of an understatement actually. What made the views so great was actually the sight of the mountain peaks coming out of the mist - the place really was unreal. No wonder they talk about the "sea of clouds" here, no wonder many Chinese painters came here to capture the beauty of the place.
For sure one of the most stunning landscapes I've seen in my life. The mountains may not be as high as the Himalayas or even the Alps (the highest peaks are a bit over 1800 meters high), but the landscapes of strangely jutting granite peaks is something pretty unique. Our walk took us back to another cable car - and thankfully we were now treated to pretty clear skies (apart from the sea of clouds below us, of course).
Unfortunately, we missed our bus back to Tunxi, so we had to take a taxi (which actually didn't cost that much more than the bus).
That brought an end to a fantastic stay in Huangshan, as it was time to carry on to Nanjing the next day. What a beautiful part of the world!
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