Huang Shan- Yellow Mountain

So, Huang Shan- Yellow Mountain, was one of the places that I said that I would definately go to. Supposedly it is where part of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed. This last weekend I went, and although it was overcast and we could not fully realize the beauty of our surroundings, it was still an amazing experience. What else can I say but that it is beautiful...the pictures do it little justice, but you get the idea. This is the textbook landscape that you see in chinese art. The lower part is a bambo forest, but as you climb, you hit waterfalls, then more rugged terrain with striking outcroppings of rocks with trees perched atop them.

All I can say is that it is a mountain and it is beautiful. My words could not accurately depict it.

Here is the group in front of the "friendship tree". Ha.

We stayed in a place near the top of the mountain in a community room...16 asian guys in a room on bunkbeds. They stayed up late talking, and every time they moved, it shook the bunk beds because they were all connected. It was cold and when I woke up in the morning to watch the sunrise (which we didnt see because of the clouds), I had found that during the night my roommates had a sunflower seed feast and left all of the shells on the floor. There was no shower that I knew of, and even if I did know about it, I would not have used it. The bathrooms consisted of community squaters with no partitions....and yeah. I have become fairly good at holding my breath while in the bathroom, but if I need air I usually will breath; however, that morning as I was peeing, I almost passed out. Looking around, I decided that no matter how badly I needed air, I would hold it till I was in the clear. Did I paint a decent picture? See how bundled up I am in the above picture? I had just woken up and rolled out of bed like that. Anyways, it was fun though.

So this hike was I think 6 kilometers, with a climb of 1800 meters? I think...and if you are like I was, then you really didnt know what that meant. I will be the first to say that it was not easy...but then again, there were some fairly frail looking chinese people (young people) climbing with canes...but I had some concerns for their health. I saw one girl climbing while leaning on her walking cane like she had gotten stabbed in the thigh... the chinese just have a different idea of exertion I think. I also saw one girl crying fairly hysterically as her boyfriend tried to comfort her. I think it was because she was tired, but Im not really sure. These guys below found that crawling up the hill would be better than walking.



Now with that all said, and the climb described, please allow me to move on to the part of Yellow Mountain that I had concerns about. Its like Yin and Yang, equal beauty and pain...and something that honestly breaks my heart. There is a fairly booming tourist industry at the top of the mountain. There are hotels, restaurants and vendors. Yellow Mountain is a premier tourist location for the Chinese and it was crowded (so much to the point that it actually sucked alittle, we were moving though some parts like cattle). So how do they get all of the product to the top of this hill? Hire farmers to carry it for 40 kuai (~50 bucks) for every 100 kilograms they carry. I dont know how much these weigh, but I assume that everyone's load is roughly the same weight. I saw one guy carrying approximately 14 12-packs of bottles of beer, and some guys I saw actually had to be carrying heavier.

These guys had calves of steel, some of the poorest shoes I had ever seen (they were like blackmarket canvas converse shoes), and large bruises on their shoulders from the loads. You wonder how long they can do this for. It was such a disgusting experience to pass these guys on my way down the hill, silently carrying their loads, then pass a tourist who is going, "AAhhhh!!! hoooooo!!!" panting and stretching because they are winded. Its one of the sadder things that I have seen, and the farmers on the whole, still feel that there is a class system, so they will never rudely tell a tourist to move it. I seriously wanted to offer to carry some of their loads for a stretch, but

1. I dont even know if i could without hurting myself
2. I dont get the impression that anyone, employer, tourist, or farmer would be ok with that.


Something else that bothers me is that they have a cable car that runs 3/4 way up the mountain...I dont know why they dont load the car up at night with beer and other stuff, when it is not running for tourists....I dont know...maybe they do...


Keep in mind that this took me ~5 hours to climb, and it was more or less "up" the whole time"
But, thats how it is for now I guess, and I would not say that I regret much of anything. Yellow mountain is fantastic. Im too tired to summarize my thoughts, but I think I will let you come to your own conclusions...or maybe not...maybe it just is what it is and I am thinking too much.