After 7 straight days of teaching, it was time for the May break. Cynthia arranged for us to go to Huangshan, a city in Anhui Province that has an amazing mountain range & old villages nearby. One thing we’ve missed from home is hiking, so we’ve been looking forward to Mount Huangshan :) We were up for the challenge, lol!

We arrived in the city on April 30 and taxied our way to our hostel - Huangshan International Youth Hostel...nice place...it was simple and comfortable.

Mike & I started our first full day sleeping in. We were pretty tired after our long week. Yah! No alarm clock! When we eventually wandered out into the real world, we went around our hostel on foot. Our place was right in the center of Huangshan, so we were pretty handy to everything.



Later in the day, well before sunset, we jumped on the no.12 bus for Tunxi Ancient Street. We didn’t know where the street was (after the fact, we discovered we could have gotten off the bus at many different places along the way), so we just stayed as the bus went all along its route. We ended up in the countryside! We passed huge strings of snapping firecrackers and a man herding ducks (down the side of the road.



The street was...well...ancient, lol! It’s like most of the other ancient streets around China. I’m not much of a shopper (Cathy can tell you), and it’s a place for those who enjoy shopping and love to bargain. I just took pictures, and I did manage to take some nice ones :)



On May 2nd, Mike & I decided to tackle it...Mt. Huangshan! Only 7.5 km up, lol. The local bus system is cool, you just show up when you want a bus, it fills up pretty quickly and you’re off. It was about 1 ½ hours to our destination and I loved it!

The land in this area is gorgeous! It smells like an enormous biodome or greenhouse, like a mixture of damp earth and eucalyptus. The fields leading up to the mountains are filled with growing berries, rice plants, tea trees and so many other things I couldn’t name. The oxen lounge in mud holes in the center of the fields to escape the heat.



We weren’t exactly sure what we were in for when we got there. The people on the bus pointed to us to get off and motioned for us to go in a certain direction. We found our way to the entrance for the bus that will shuttle you to the actual Mt. Huangshan entrance :)
My lack of Chinese can be a wee bit frustrating at times, but I’ve learned to mostly trust the people at these places. They know what I want, even if I don’t!

After a winding shuttle ride, we got off at our stop and found out a few more details. It would be 7.5 km up to somewhere, but not exactly sure to where ??? Eh, good enough for us...

Our climb/hike was about 7,000 steps up. There were a couple of times on the way up I almost passed out (too dehydrated, wasn’t taking enough breaks along the way for food), but we got to a spot about halfway up where they sold pearapples (I ate one), cucumbers (I ate two), and bottled water (I drank one). Wheeee! I got to live to take more steps, lol!





All along the way there were these men with bamboo planks across their shoulders, balancing loads of vegetables, supplies, ducks, etc. They were taking the items to the few hotels located up in the mountains. One of them (the man carrying cucumbers) would warn you he was coming with his high-pitched “Wooo, wooo”, lol.

I have to confess, we didn’t make it to the peak, but we did go about 6.5 km up, up, up. I know, I know...why go so close and not finish? Well, we were dying from exhaustion...and most people take 2-3 days to do the climb (staying at hotels along the way), not just one day like us. Yeah, I’m making excuses, but we felt good with what we did :)

Next experience for us was the queue to get back down by cable-car. When we entered the line, we were at the 3 hr. wait sign, and they weren’t kidding, lol! We began outside under a tarp, wound our way to outside (with no tarp), then inside to a winding maze, over to some seats, around into another area with seats, down some stairs, then an area with more seats, then through the doors to the cable-car. The view down was pretty cool!

We came to Huangshan at one of the busiest times of the year, so Mike & I will definitely come back next year during the off-season to beat that mountain peak! Grrr, lol :)

On our 3rd and final day in Huangshan, we jumped on another bus, this time headed to Yixian County to see one of the ancient villages in the area. Our bus ride was beautiful on the way there :) They let us off in the middle of nowhere & pointed out the direction. So we started walking...not long though; a van pulled up and pointed to Xidi and quoted a price. It only cost us 2 yuan each and he took us quite a distance, right to the gate of the village. Nice :)



We got to the gate to pay for the entrance ticket, but they sent us to another area...we needed a special permit. The local group that provides the permit thought we were a hoot! We spoke hardly any Mandarin & they spoke hardly any English. Anyway, after some laughing, pointing, doodling and parting with money, Mike & I officially received our Alien’s Permit to visit the village, lol!

Xidi’s architecture is from the Ming & Qing Dynasty periods and it was full of little art shops, trinket spots, and small gardens. It was nice, but a bit too commercial for me (they’ve even trademarked the name Xidi™ !). I also kept laughing because when you pronounce Xidi, it sounds like your swearing ( xi = she)...anyway, it was funny to me.




After a couple of hours in the village, we headed back in to Huangshan, had a meal at our hostel (yum! good food), went back to the Tunxi Ancient Street for more postcards, took another ride on the no.12 bus (we liked it so much, we did it twice!)...mostly we just puttered around until it was time for our taxi ride to the airport.



I like the city so much...the smell alone makes me want to live there. The people are so friendly, gardens & plant life are everywhere, and the relaxed, easygoing nature of the place just made me want to stay :) It was hard to get on that plane!