Adventures in Guangzhou!

The one hour bus ride took us through winding roads, small mountain villages, and huge tea fields. It was all so beautiful that we became entranced by the scenery and hardly spoke. At the foot of the mountain, we hopped off and went to buy tickets. Similar to most tourist sites, there are discounted tickets for students. Though very few of us were students, almost everyone had a university ID. The Yale kids all successfully used their outdated Yale IDs despite the fact that it had "VOID" stamped on the front. As Andrew said, "they don't know what the means." I managed to use my BU staff ID and was pleased that they recognized "university" on the card and didn't question me further.

The best, though, was the few people who didn't have IDs with them. The discounted tickets were half off which saved 100 kuai--well worth an extra effort. These few card-less kids borrowed IDs from those of us that had already paid and simply went back in line using the same card twice. I figured it would never work that Alison, a short girl with brown hair, could get by with an ID from Kelly, who has blonder hair and looks completely different. But I was wrong. I even contributed to the ruse by giving one of the guys my outdated university ID from studying Chinese last semester. Again, the picture of me looked absolutely nothing like him, but it just goes to show that all white people look alike to Chinese people. Can't really blame them though; it almost always works the same way over in the States, just in reverse.

Next we used some serious connections through the principal of the Xiuning high school to cut the line for the cable car. While it is possible to hike all the way up, it would have added hours on to the day that we just didn't have. So we took the easy way. Despite there being over one thousand people waiting in line for the cable car, we were led to the back staircase that Communist Party members and foreign dignitaries use. The design was genius--there was a wooden fence blocking us from view and we managed to go all the way up and directly to the cars without a single person in the general line seeing us. It made me wonder--how often are people cutting me in line when I don't even know it?!

The ride itself was gorgeous and brought up really high up. The mountain was enormous, with different peaks and gorges in every direction, so I didn't even remotely feel bad about taking the car up. Stepping out of the cable car, we were met by throngs of people walking shoulder to shoulder through the paths. We split into three groups, made a meeting time/place, and began our trek.

For the first two hours it was all about fighting the crowd. It felt like being on a bus during rush hour, with people getting smooshed into very narrow places. What killed me was the number of people who would just sit down in the middle of the trail, thereby blocking thousands of people from getting through. Even worse, though, were the big groups that would stop to take pictures and listen to commentary from a tour guide every five feet. What a mess!

After elbowing and shoving through people for over two hours, without warning the crowds broke. It was amazing--all we had to do was take one left hand turn and suddenly we were alone. It was completely inexplicable. From then on out, it was like we were on a completely different mountain. We were able to hear the birds chirping, gaze at breathtaking views, and meander through the path on our own terms. It was a welcome improvement.

The western steps, the path we were taking, was pretty incredible, though one of the more difficult day-hikes I have ever done. The route went along sheer rock cliffs with cut stone stairways taking you down into a massive gorge and then back up to the top of the mountain. At times there was nothing separating us from a massive drop, other than a thin piece of stone. Going up was also incredibly steep, even forcing those of us in good shape to take a rest every few hundred meters. I was also feeling some serious pain in my knee from what felt like a stretched ligament--hardly the time to be climbing up (or down) a mountain. All in all, though, it was an unforgettable 8km of hiking.

After about six hours of trekking, we made it back to the main tourist section and met up with the other groups for dinner. It being the top of a mountain, the restaurant we ate at was absurdly expensive. What's more, it wasn't even very good! We ordered a 40 kuai bowl of noodles that tasted like something out of a really bad Chinese restaurant in England.

As we walked out, I noticed that there were dozens of tents pitched out on the basketball court. Huh. It turns out there are a number of more "hard core" Chinese travelers out there who attempt to get a more rugged huangshan experience by camping. I'm just wondering if they see the irony of camping on the basketball court of a four star hotel.

Unfortunately there was a screwup in our hotel reservation and we were unable to stay at the top of the mountain. Instead, we had to make our way about halfway down to a hotel on a lower level. This ruined our chance of seeing the sun rise, a tradition on the Yellow Mountain, but there wasn't much we could do about it. In addition, the cable car was supposed to stop running at 4:30pm, forcing us to walk about two hours down in the dark. My knee was not excited about that prospect, but again, there was no choice.

Luckily we were only about two minutes in when I looked up and noticed the cable car still operating. We ran back up and literally caught the last car down, with us and all of the employees. While it would have been nice to walk down (under more healthy circumstances), it was surreal to take the car down in the pitch black--we couldn't see where we were going or where we were coming from, other than a few scattered lights hundreds of feet away. So cool!

We checked into the hotel and all plopped down into our rooms, exhausted from an unbelievable, yet grueling day. Though we hung out for a little while, chatting and watching soccer, I think we were all asleep by about 10:30pm. I don't think I've slept that soundly in a long time...