Having missed the Terracotta warriors in Xian, that was on the list of places I would like to go. Yellow mountain also popped up as one of the most popular tourist attractions in China and the pictures I could find were quite stunning. Yellow Mountain was also pretty close judging from the map (Lesson learned there!) The girl Lijun we had been in Hongkong with earlier planned the thing, I just had to fly to Shanghai, then train or bus to Huangshan, spent a night or two there and then move on. After she finished work Friday afternoon, we got on a long distance bus to Guangshan, where there was a hotel booked in a small village Xidi close to the mountains... Again according to the map! When we arrived late at night, the bus dropped us off very close to the middle of nowhere.
Got hold of a taxi driver, who said it was an hour away and was not too happy of driving that far, as he could not make that much money before he came back to his own city. The first time ever the taxi driver is bargaining to drive, not the other way around. Eventually we agreed on a price and off we went. An hour later we were dropped off at a hotel, the sky full of stars, no light available for miles and miles. Also no places to get something to eat, which was more of a problem. At least we had a hotel, checked in and agreed that we could live without any food, as there were no other options.
Woke up in the hotel of a small village Xidi. This truly was a really authentic village, thousand years old, even serving authentic Chinese mountain breakfast. It consisted of rice soup, a few spicy preserved vegetables and some really sour tofu, almost like an old cheese. Not the most ideal breakfast after having had no dinner the evening before.I was expecting the village to be in the mountains or at least close to them, but couldn't really see anything else but hills around, and the GPS said we were not up high at all. A little confusing, to say the least.
We walked around the village, turned out to be mostly a tourist trap too, selling quite a lot of junk, packed in the clear sealed crispy plastic bags, directly from the factory. Found out afterwards that the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was partly recorded in this city, it is that real!I was still really hungry, the authentic breakfast had not filled much of the void in my stomach. Didn't really find too many places that served food, which was kind of strange.
At some point though a little girl was playing and Lijun asked her where we could find some food. The girl told us to follow her, and suddenly we were standing in her mothers kitchen. Haha, children logic. Well, turned out the woman actually rented out 2 rooms and cooked food as well, I guess the girl had been right after-all. We ordered some dishes and went out to get some fresh air while the food was being repaired. Outside there was a vegetable garden, which had most of the things we had just ordered. The girl and Lijun then ended up picking up and cleaning vegetables for the woman to cook, kind of nice to be a little engaged in what is going on. My part was supervision. The food was quite good, really fresh and tasty. With a full stomach, the situation looked much more promising and positive. 
Lijun had contacted a driver some Finnish guys had been using some months earlier, so instead of taking a taxi around, we got our own limousine. Not familiar with the area, we asked the driver where to go and how to get the most of the weekend. It was a little disappointing to hear that we should probably have been up a little earlier to go to the mountain. Oh well, that could be done the next morning, unfortunately I had already booked a flight so I had to be back in Shanghai Sunday evening at latest. By now I had figured out that the Yellow Mountain was not one mountain, but a group of summits covering a pretty big area. That also meant that all the pictures I had seen on the internet already, probably could not be seen for real in this limited time. He took drove us up to a place called Nine Dragons Fall, a very cool water fall which is part of the Yellow mountain peak park. It is a funny thing with Chinese people, when in line, they push like crazy. Not that it makes the entire thing go faster, but I guess you just have to push to feel good? When walking up and down this path to the fall, there was room for people going up and down. However, most people walked 2 or 3 persons next to each other blocking the entire way and making noise behind them even so much they could see me, did not make them move an inch. Had to walk through them pushing them aside myself. Don't mind that people might fall down and drown or break their neck, just don't move.
Afterward it was time to find another hotel for the night, one a little closer than the previous one. Could have booked one on top of the mountain, but was too late for that. Instead we found a small hotel close by that offered a ride to the bus stop in the morning, so that we could be among the first ones to get up the peak. We went out for dinner at a place where the food turned out to be horrible. They had fish tanks with food waiting to be cooked, below that a tank with huge frogs, one of which was tied down so he wouldn't jump away. There was also a turtle, that's just mean, that thing never had a chance to get away. Evil. Instead we ended up buying a lot of fruit which was delicious, lots of different ones I had never tasted or seen before.
The next morning it was up early and off to the mountain - together with thousands of other people, and I am not kidding. We got on the bus and for free we were driven up to the entrance to the Mountain Park. For free, must be a good sign of the rest to come.
At the entrance though they demanded a steep RMB230 a person, equally to $40, plus the cable car ticket which was RMB80, of course one way only. Anyway, we were here now, too late to regret and too far away to cancel. Boarded the 2nd longest cable car in the world, 2.8km long, which took us up to one of the summits.
Wow, this view was even better than the pictures I had seen on the internet already. We spent a couple of hours walking around up there and and down different peaks, offering a superb view. I know Grand Canyon deserves a wow when seeing it the first time, but I think actually this was more stunning, double-wow.
The mountain is a little too touristic. It is made easy for everyone to get around, lots of up and downs though, but there are steps all over with paths plastered on the side of the mountain with iron and concrete. Actually it looks pretty good, but then after half an hour or so another thousand tourists were on the path as well. The bus that took us to the lift, was one of maybe 40-50 buses going up and down the mountain non-stop.
It got so crowded at points that I started feeling a little bad. Chinese people shouting, spitting and smoking where they wanted, loudspeakers trying to be loud enough for the entire party to hear what the tour guide is saying. In my opinion, that simply doesn't belong on a mountain like this. It is kind of difficult to enjoy the views when there is a line of 50 people behind one waiting to take a picture in that situation and there is a speaker shouting loud.
It was time to return to Shanghai and we called the hotel who had said they would get some tickets for us. Apparently they had been a little too eager, because they could not give us the tickets we needed and the chances of making it back to Shanghai on Sunday was getting really small. All the buses to Shanghai were sold out, so we decided to try the luck with a bus half way and then the bullet train the other half, even though that would be sold out as well.
We made it to the Hangzhou from where the bullet train left, but the only tickets we could get were from next morning at around 6. Lijun bought them anyway and when the train was boarding she went up to talk to one of the ticket check points and came up with some bad excuse that I had to catch my plane in the morning at 7am and I would not be able to make it. The guy looked at me and I put up my most sad face - it worked. He let us through and we got on the train, but could not get a seat and had to spent the entire 1 hour in the restaurant car drinking beer. Oh my, what a punishment.Made it back to Shanghai and was just in time to meet for Klaus and CJ for dinner in Shanghai. There were in town anyway for some business meeting. Went to a restaurant that did not seem too familiar with having guests in the restaurant. The food was cold, the beers were warm and they took forever, they seemed more interested in cleaning the restaurant than serving the food we had ordered a long time ago.
Yellow Mountain, a very beautiful place to go. But I would definitely propose to spend a few days there including staying in a hotel in the mountains, catching sunset and sunrise and get a few hours alone before the tourist rush starts
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