Huangshan (黄山) - Yellow Mountains

This past weekend, my roommate, her friend, and I went to the Yellow Mountains, or Mt. Huangshan, which is known as the mountains in the clouds. Her friend booked everything for us and Saturday morning we got up at five to catch the subway. We rode all the way across town and had to run through crowds to get on the bus, we were late already. After about twenty minutes of running, we couldn't find the bus, we finally got on, wide awake now. Finally we were off, on a Chinese tour bus, crammed with people, already an experience.
The bus ride took six hours and thankfully I was able to sleep a bit. When we got there, our bus stopped in a corner of town and we had to make our way through town to find the entrance of the mountain. We bought bus ticket to go up, apparently the only way to get to the base of the mountain. The ride was fun, turn after turn our bus driver raced up the mountain, I'm surprised no one got sick.
To get up to the top of the mountain, you can either climb up or take the cable car. We were being ambitious and decided to hike up. Let me tell you, boy did we regret that. We had packed a book bag and then also another bag each which we lugged all the way to the top. It took us about four hours to get to the top, our legs were burning. We had to laugh ecause we weren't the only ones. There was this guy who basically crawled on all fours up the mountain, he kept shinning and telling everyone this is crazy.

It felt great to get there though and even though the hike was intense, the views were amazing.
Our hotel was right on top of the mountain which was wonderful. We finally made it to our rooms and took much needed hot shower, at that point the cold was getting to us. Once we stopped hiking it finally got really cold. 
Since the food on top of the mountain was really expensive, we brought our own food, ramen and snacks, and had that with hot tea. It was delicious. 
It didn't take us long to fall asleep, plus we wanted to get up real early the next morning to watch the sunrise. 
The next morning we woke at around 5, got changed and walked up to the highest part of the mountain. We were smart to get up so early because about twenty minutes after we got there and marked our sports, we were surrounded by so many people. Watching the sunrise is one of the most beautiful things to do here so everyone comes to do that. 
We waited for what seemed like forever, but then finally the sun started rising. It was so pretty and watching the sun come over the mountains was a sight. 
We stayed and watch for about an hour and a half and after that we were all frozen solid. We ran back to the hotel and put on all of the clothes we brought. Thankfully we found hot water and soon we were getting a little warmer. We decided to relax a bit and then slowly make our way back down.
We hiked down for a bit and then took the cable cars the rest of the way down. And boy was the scenery amazing, it was so beautiful. Pictures can't really describe it all.
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting lunch and walking around the town at the bottom of the hill. I even got some souvenirs and tea.
At three we took the bus back to Shanghai, thankfully not a lot of people went back so we had a lot of room to lay out across. 
It was a wonderful weekend, both tiring and exhausting but also so pretty.

My roommate and her friend

Our hotel on top of the mountain!

People come up here and either as a couple chain up a lock or for their significant other.

We constantly saw men carry huge loads up and down the mountain, their stamina is insane.

So many mushrooms

Tea shops were everywhere and there was so much tea

It was a wonderful weekend and we all had so much fun. One of the prettiest places ever. 

Back to school for the week. We finished our Chinese book today, so on Tuesday is our last test on it. I'm wondering what they are going to teach us now.

Hope everyone back home is getting into the holiday spirit. Here in China they don't celebrate Christmas so there isn't any decorations or music or food. I know its early, but I really miss the holiday spirit and festivities. Another interesting difference in the culture.

Can't wait to see everyone back home! Miss you all :)

Love,

Stefanie