This morning found us up at 5:45 am to catch the first train out of Shanghai. Before leaving, I tried to call Christie to wish her a happy anniversary, but I couldn't work the phone and the front desk was not open yet. Bummer. I sent her an email instead, but its not the same. Noah and I hopped on the metro to the train station and found our train pretty easily.
After an hour train ride, we bought bus tickets to Huanghsan (translation: yellow mountain). Ok, we had our bus tickets but we needed to get to the bus station. We looked at a map, and found that there are four bus stations in Hangzhou. After some poking around we found someone who spoke english (not an easy task) and found out which station we needed.
Now we needed a taxi to get there, and this was a debacle. Every cab we approached and asked to take us just shook their head or rolled up their window. We walked back into the train station to try and see if there was a taxi stand somewhere we had missed. Instead of a taxi stand, we found a cluster of guys who were standing by a taxi sign, but no taxis in sight. We asked for a ride to the bus station, and they quoted something outrageous, like 120 Yuan (~$18 US). Keeping in mind our room in shanghai cost us each around 90 Yuan, we balked at the price and walked away. After realizing we had no other options and a bus to catch we haggled with them and got them down to 80 (still a bad price). The guy led us to his car, which was certainly not a cab, but a pretty nice audi or VW. He appeared to be in a big rush, and I think he was trying to tell us we might miss the bus, even though it didn't leave for a whole hour. As soon as we pulled out of the station, we realized the problem: gridlock. Traffic was completely stopped as far as the eye could see. Luckily, our driver didn't mind driving on the sidewalk to get around traffic jams, and soon we were driving around the picturesque lake that puts Hangzhou on the tourist map. Still cruising on the sidewalk at times, he bypassed buses and slow bicycles to get out of the downtown area and onto a highway.
Forty five minutes later, we emerge from a tunnel and he points to the clock and yells "OK!". We clapped for him and he dropped us at the station with ten minutes to spare.
The bus wound its way through mountains and tunnels, eventually dropping us at a restaurant in the town at the base of the mountain. Unfortunately, it was just a 4 table restaurant and we needed to get to the entrance to the mountain path. While trying to ask people how to get there, a lady asked if we spoke english and then made a phone call. Ten minutes later, a man pulled up in a car who spoke english and introduced himself as Mister Hu. He asked us what our plan was and we explained, but he quickly pointed out a flaw.... The buses leaving the town to go back to the airport in the morning only left at 6:30 and 7 am, with the next one departing at 2:30 in the afternoon. This was a big problem, as our flight left at 6:30 and it was a 4 hour bus ride back to the airport. Knowing we had to make that 7 am bus, we opted to take the cable car up the mountain this afternoon, hike back down the mountain, and sleep at Mister Hu's hotel in the town.
Despite our plan of camping on the summit and seeing the sunrise being derailed, we still had a great time on the mountain. The cable car was a long ride up, and at the top it was like someone switched on the air conditioning. After being soaked with sweat for days, it felt amazing. The summit is at 6,000 feet, and is a UNESCO world heritage site.
We hiked around the top, and it afforded some amazing views.
I snapped a video to give you an idea of how incredible this place was:
It is really one of those places that can't be adequately represented by photos, but I tried to capture some of the beauty to share with you. We hiked down the stairs to the bottom, which took around 3 hours. Most of the time there were no people in sight - peace and quiet at last.
Now we just have to make sure to catch our bus in the morning and we will be flying to Yangshuo, a small town rumored to be even more beautiful than here.
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