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

Bargaining in Shanghai

My friend, Eleni, and I decided to go shopping today. We wanted to pick up some souvenirs, explore the city, and just get out.

Our first stop was Old Town, which is even prettier each time I go. I love the old and ancient traditional Chinese architecture and just walking from street to street. The best part is the middle of Old Town, where the Tea House is located in the middle of the pond. We gone and looked to see if we could have tea up there, but it's just a tourist place, so the prices were exorbitantly high. 
Here, just like almost any other market in Shanghai you have to bargain, and bargain hard or they will rip you off. It's something I've come to learn to do and I'm not too bad at it anymore. It was pretty hard at the beginning, especially since there was a huge language barrier. But now when I bargain, they think I'm a foreigner and so automatically think I know only English. When I ask them how much it is and continue on to bargain in Chinese they are surprised and usually will go down on the price even more.
One of the times I have gone bargaining they wanted 380 yuan for a pair of shoes...knock off's I must add. I bargained will I got them for 70 yuan, or about $11. Not too bad I think, and I've been wearing them almost every day. 
We spent a few hours in Old Town, going from store to store, walking through all the streets.
Our next stop was the International Foreign Bookstore here in Shanghai, one of my favorite places. This four floor bookstore has just about any book imaginable and not only in English, but they sell books in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and almost every other language too. My favorite part here is the travel section, where tenths of copies of travel books are laid out. I can spend hours here just leafing through all the places. One day. 
I got a Chinese cook book though so hopefully when I get back home I can try out my Chinese dishes. 
Our next stop was Han City which is a huge fake market mall. Here floor after floor sells knock of designer brands as well as silk, souvenirs, and just regular items. Vendors are crazy and almost attack you in order to sell something. You constantly hear, "How much you want", "Give me price", and so on. If you're not prepared to be ambushed, your probably going to be overwhelmed and stressed out. It's great bargaining with a friend though, where one of us says an outrageously low price and we both bargain to reach something close to it. We had a great time.
Eleni wanted to get a dress for her birthday so of course we went to Forever 21, always the place to shop at. Again I am amazed at how big it is here and even with five floors, how many people there are. Some days you can't even move around, there's people everywhere. 
Finally we were done, worn out from shopping. We went to Xintiandi, the French Concession part of town. It felt like Europe, where street walkways were lined with restaurant after restaurant. We found an Italian restaurant and had pizza, yummm!

China loves their cute accessories

We were looking in a store and I came across this, I had to take a picture. Too funny

Of course I found a coffee shop :)

This statue, I wonder what they're trying to say

Nanjing Road

It was a good productive day. We were both dead on the subway ride back. 

I'm heading to the Yellow Mountains tomorrow so I'm really excited for that.

I'll write again soon!

Love,

Stefanie