The great firewall of china part 5: Walking in the clouds

8/30 As the train system in china is a bit corrupt (which makes
independent travel here difficult) with the tour agencies being
allowed first dibs on tickets, it is tough to get the hard sleeper
(best value) train tickets. The other options are the expensive 1st
class soft sleeper or the hard seat. Lukas went to the train ticket
office exactly when it opened 10 days before my departure date (when
they start selling tickets) and the hard sleeper was already sold out.
So I had the hard seat for the 20 hour journey to Huang Shan. The
seat itself would be ok, but the thing is they don't just sell tickets
for the seats, but standing room as well. So it is incredibly
crowded. Add onto that the chinese' standards of cleanliness and it
became not the most pleasant journey. See the chinese have no problem
spitting everywhere. So even in the train there were spitting all
over. Down by your feet or into the aisle. They just throw their
trash, left over food, etc onto the floor as well. They do farmer
nose blows into the aisle too. They aren't supposed to smoke in the
train area but between the cars, but this is not really followed
either. The chiense also have not awareness of being loud. They are
yelling and talking loudly constantly and all through the night (my
ears are hurting even now as I am in the computer lab with headphones
on as everyone is screaming around as they play their computer games
and talk on skype. But luckily I had a good book, an ipod, and a neck
pillow so I was able to try and block most of it out and even sleep a
bit. I am hoping to avoid this kind of thing again, but my next train
to guilin will be buying a ticket the day of, so i may even have to
take standing only!

8/31 I Arrived in Tunxi and took a bus to Tonkou where I then took a
bus to the base of Huang Shan (Huang = yellow, Shan = mountain) Huang
Shan is supposed to be the most beautiful mountain in china, and I
can't argue with that. It is however, very chinese in that they took
a very natural and scenic area and built fancy hotels on the top and
have 3 gondolas going to the top so as to avoid the walk. It is also
full of megaphone toting tour guides (the chinese seem to only travel
in tour groups, even in their own country). But despite all of this,
I was still absolutely amazed by huang shan.
I, unlike the chinese, walked the 10 km trail up to the summit. It
was one of the steepest trails I had ever done over a distance of that
long. The mountain shoots straight up (from less than 500m to
1860m...less than 1660 feet to 6200 feet). The first part you do
ascend on the bus, so I am not sure the actual elevation I went up in
my 10 km's, but it was so steep that there was a no point a normal
trail. The entire time it was stairs built into the mountain. There
was really no one on the trail except for porters carrying huge loads
of goods up to the mountains for the restaurants and tourist shops (I
have no idea, other than crowds, why the gondolas aren't used). There
were some stunning views up the canyon as I sweated out the hike
through the humid (nearly jungly like vegetation) trail. I reached
the rim of the mountain and got to look down on some gorgeous views of
the mountain with all its spikey granite spires. The mountain is
interesting b/c it's a huge granite mountain that goes straight,
straight up, but then on the top there is a big area that is not
nearly so steep with hundgreds of small little summits. They have a
special type of tree here--don't know the real name, but the latin
name is pinus taiwanensis) that grows in a really cool fashion
attached to the side of the cliffs and with needles on only one side,
giving them a cool shape especially in the fog. As soon as I got to
the top I started exploring some of the summits that are supposed to
have good views. I caught some views at a few of them before the
dense fog rolled in. So I went to my hotel (I would be staying in a
dormitory with about 100 chinese tourists on organized tours). boiled
some water for the noodles I carried up (you can imagine that food up
there is too expensive). After my lunch I headed out into the fog to
see if I could see any more vistas. Occassionaly there would be a
slight opening, but not much. I ran into a chinese guy (english named
david) who was a dentist (but still staying at dorms...I hope my
dentist friend and her model husband still travel the budget way like
this guy) and we explored around together. There is just a maze of
trails (almost all stairs) going everywhere. He had been there before
and took me to some of his spots. One area was closed but he said it
was ok to jump the gate. He said no chinese would do this, so we
would have it all to ourself. And indeed we did. On occassion we
could see the monkey looking into the sea (a rock looking like a
monkey looking out over the clouds). I loved all the cool names they
had for the peaks and rocks around like refreshing peak, cloud
dispelling peak, lotus peak, bright top, beginning to believe peak,
reaching for heaven peak, capital heaven peak, etc, etc. David's
english wasn't too good, but we managed to get along well. He invited
me to come swimming at his dormitory (which I was surprised the had a
pool) as my place didn't even have a shower. However, swimming meant
shower, which was still nice. However, I didn't need the shower b/c
right after mine as I was taking the 3km walk back to my dorm area it
poured and poured and waterfalls and streams were rushing everywhere.
Back at my dorm I met, Jacque, a taiwanese canadian. She was on one
of the group tours, but looking to get away. She was on the group
tour b/c her friend she was travelling with had had to suddenly go
home and she just found it so difficult and trying to travel through
china alone so she was doing group tours as she could speak chinese.
She was fun to talk to as she was a lot like me and one of the few
people that had at least expressed to me some of the same things I was
feeling. She also had done a pre med program at her school in Toronto
and decided to go travel through SE asia in order to "find herself"
and hope to have some elightening vision as to what she should do. It
didn't come (as it didn't for me in se asia either) so she moved to
work in Zurich. She then decided it was time again to go out
travelling and see if she could figure something out so she has been
on a trip going through the middle east and coming to china. Her trip
ends in a couple of weeks and she is still not sure about what she
wants to do. She is feeling the pressure of all her other friends
having savings and real jobs and houses, etc (a bit like me and that
ever present american dream), but she still doesn't know what she will
do, so she may move back to europe. So it was neat to hear from
someone that has a lot of the same things as me. We also had a good
time laughing about all the idosyncrasies (and disgusting habits) of
the chinese. That night at 3:30 the lights in the dorm went on, it
got really noisy and all the chinese were getting up. The sunrise is
something you must see on huang shan, but I couldn't figure out why
they were getting up so early. It is still uknownn to me.

9/1 I tried to get back to sleep and woke up at a decent time of 5:30
to go check out the sunrise, which was a no go as it was a soupy fog.
The guide book says that the weather on the mountain is a roll of the
dice so plan several days there, so I am assuming that it is often
like this. One of the cool things you hope to see is the "sea" of
clouds below the mountains with the huge granite spires poking out and
seemingly floating above them. I don't know if it's true or not, but
a big sign at the visitor center boasts that this place is where they
got the idea for the floating mountains in Avatar. I could definitely
see that. The peaks here are stunning. When I couldn't see the
sunrise, I headed off to meet up with David where I joined him and 4
chinese students on a long trek called the west great canyon. As soon
as we approached the trailhead, the fog broke free and we were treated
to an absolutely stunning view. It seriously made me jump a little
and want to yell. The jagged peaks were rising straight up with fog
and mist below them. Just like the floating mountains. The rest of
the day and hike the mist would go in and out, but we had many
stunning views. The trail we took was definitely the most awesomely
engineered trail I had ever been on. It traversed down the canyon,
across it, and back up it. Losing and then gaining tons of altitude.
What made it so impressive was that there was really no possible
places along the whole canyon to build a trail. So it was basically a
trail built by attaching stairs and concrete to the cliffs and making
tunnels and seemingly impossible bridges. I still have no idea how
they build this trail. I would be like building a trail for hikers
going up the diamond of longs peak and traversing the keyboard of the
winds. The scenery was stunning but it was also just cool to see the
trail snaking around and hugging the cliffs. Often you were on this
trail in the middle of a cliff. The trail was somehow suspended on
the clifff. Looking down was a 1000+ft drop. And you couldn't help
but wonder, is this thing really stable. And with the mist and cliffs
all around, it really felt like you were walking in the sky in the
clouds with floating mountains all around. At one point the trail did
a loop within the huge loop. It was at this exact point that I went
into a ravine to pee. When I came back, David and 2 of the students
had already gone on ahead, but two of the other students were in front
of me, so I was following them. I figured they were following david's
way (they didn't really speak english), but that was not the case. We
ended up doing the loop and thus not finding David. I could tell the
two students were worried, but I figured out the map and took them
with me for the rest of the trip. Along the way we met up with a guy
named Hung who worked in beijing for an american pharmaceutical
company. He was a cool guy and liked to come to this mountain often.
The trail and scenery were just so amazing that I can still vividly
see it in my mind. It's one of those things where pictures could
never do it justice, but hopefully I can remember it for a long time.
Once back at the top, I said goodbye to everyone and continued
exploring the peaks of the summit area as the weather was still good.
Foggy, but it would break at times allowing me to see awesome views.
I was supposed to head back down to tonkou today, but the mountain was
so impressive and I hoped for a real sunrise, so I decided on a whim
to stay another night.

9/2 Same old drill with the chinese getting up at 3:30 in the
morning. The weather in the morning was a bit better. Before the
sunrise, but while it was still light I was able to see the dark
shapes of the peak rising out over the sea of clouds. However, by the
time the sun came it was socked in. It eventually became really
socked in and although I hung around until noon reading before
exploring some more, it never cleared. So I decided to just go and
hike in the fog. I hiked up to the highest of the peaks, lotus peak
(which apparently looks like a blooming flower from above) where they
award you a gold medal for reaching the summit. I then walked around
some more cool rocky areas before beginning my descent a different way
down to get back to tongkou. Eventually I got low enough that I was
below the fog and again the scenery was awesome. At the bottom of
this trail was a cool little temple with the mountain backdrop behind
it.
During my trip here, I decided to count how many times I was asked to
be in photos with the chinese tourists, just for kicks and
giggles....64 times
On the bus back I met some americans from Central Washington
University doing genetic primate research on the monkeys in the area
for their masters. Thought that was pretty cool

I loved Huang Shan and it's one of those few places I would definitely
love to come back to even though I know there is so much more to
explore in the world. It was just really mystical and magical. I
would have loved to have a really clear day to really get some 360 and
panoramic views, but the weather could have been much worse I think
and in the end the clouds and mist helped to make it even more
mystical. If you've ever looked at some of the paintings at chinese
restuarants in america with steep, jagged mountains shrouded in mist
and the cool trees hanging off...that is just like this place. Really
great!

Tomorrow I have a bus to Nanchang where I hope to catch an overnight
train to Guilin from where I will catch a bus to Yangshuo. Keep your
fingers crossed for me.