That is why Mrs. Lee dared not look out of any of the peaks. She kept her eyes on the steps and focused on moving one foot forward at a time. Thankfully, this time, her destination is to the bottom of the mountain.

We split into two groups. The first group headed towards the cable car station for a ride down. The second group headed towards the bottom of the mountain. I won’t tell you who went in the first group, just that none of them had a yellow jacket. *cough*

We passed by a map of the mountain which I didn’t even want to look at.

Of course we got there eventually. At the foot of Mount Huangshan, we found a few Mini Bus service providers. Each provider wanted us to ride in their vehicle. We let Simon choose which one to get on.

The lady in red is the most tenacious so we hopped onto her service. She promised we’ll get back by 4pm.

We thought we could head back straightaway but her husband drove us round and round the mountain area to look for more passengers. Mimi tried to help by poking her head out the window and asking every person we passed by if they wanted a ride.

We even waited for a passenger to get off the bus, post a letter at the post office (or pay bills, or whatever), and get back on again. The wait felt like forever.

Eventually, the bus filled up, and off we went!

We passed by farmlands.

We got back to our hostel at 4:30pm. It wasn’t too bad except we were dog tired. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a bed. That night, we ate whatever that was served at the hostel, which was really delicious anyway.

Early the next morning, Simon decided to treat our aching legs with a trip to HongCun and Xidi, a UNESCO Heritage village.

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and my face got wind-burned.

Remember how I said it was deathly strenuous to get to the top? This was at one of the many peaks. The carving on the stone says Brightness Top 1660m.

What I didn’t mention was, even though it was tough climbing up, it was painful climbing down!

Here’s my calf muscles crying out in pain.

Admittedly the view is unbelievable

In our own world of anguished legs, it felt like we were miserable alone.

But of course, it wasn’t just a sad pitiful journey all the way. There were some good parts…

In fact, the best part of it?

Snow Fight! :grin:

Despite the throbbing pain in our legs, off we went again after lunch. We took a scenic route that passes the many peaks on the west side. We spent so much time taking in the views, we forgot to keep track of time. The sky darkened when we still had about 3km to go. We had to abandon our journey and turn back.

Since we didn’t make it to the Walking Fairyland Bridge, was it still worth the climb?

Look

at

these

photos

and

decide.

For starters, we had it easy with a cable car ride in the beginning. Since we were only staying for a night, we could travel light so we brought minimal things. On top of that, we were so well prepared that everything we were bringing could be stuffed into a small daysack or rucksack.

You’ll be surprised how many Chinese tourists lug their heavy suitcases up the mountain. We also saw a lady whose child got tired. She had to carry the little fella who weighs perhaps 25kg with her bare hands.

But that’s not the worst scenario of climbing Mount Huangshan. As we climbed and we climbed and we climbed, we kept passing by men who were carrying all sorts of supplies for the hotels and restaurants up the mountain.

You would think they were used to it, but they weren’t. There were abandoned supplies everywhere.

We tried to heave this sack but couldn’t even get it to budge. One guy who was also carrying sacks of things rested for a while. When I passed, he asked weakly if I had any food. I gave him the little snacks that I had, thinking that would surely not be good enough. I was so surprised when his facial expression turned full of gratitude.

The next day, when we were going downhill, another guy who was carrying up a heavy load asked if we have any cream he could rub on his knee. We didn’t have any, but we stopped to chat for a bit. He told us he’s been carrying supplies up the hill for the past two years so he’s quite used to it. It’s just that yesterday he injured his knee so today he is suffering a bit. He also shared that he always carry 80kg because it pays 25 cents (RMB) per kg. It’s not worth carrying anything less than 80 kg because that means he’ll have to make two trips to make ends meet.

If after that comparison you still think climbing Mount Huangshan is tortorous, you can always hire these guys to carry you on a sedan chair. It costs RMB100.00 per kilometer.

Just bear in mind that the sedan chair business is only open on weekends. We were there on a weekday so we could only look at the sedan chairs sadly stacked beside the path.

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The hostel arranged for a van to drop us off near the foot of the mountain. We transferred to two cabs which brought us higher up.The taxis dropped us here, we walked a little to get to the cable car station. It was really easy.

The weather wasn’t perfect but we were as cheerful as a bright summer’s day.

Simon told us our hotel is really near the cable car station, so we should take a slightly longer but more scenic route to get there. We were more than happy to follow his lead.

After all, Simon also said Mount Huangshan is really easy to climb. It’s just a few steps.

Followed by a few more steps.

Here’s Mimi taking another few steps.

Check out the few steps behind me.

Another few steps…

As I climbed and I climbed and I climbed, I repeated to myself: “The scenery is worth the climb”.

Simon was right. Mount Huangshan is a few steps of going up, followed by a few steps of going down, followed by a few more steps of going up, and a few more steps of going down (X 200 times!)

Eventually, I took out my walking stick to beat Simon up to help me climb. It helped a little, too bad it doesn’t flatten the mountain.

Remember how Simon said the hotel was not too far away with the scenic route? I googled the route we took and discovered this.

Not far away huh, Simon?

YA RIGHT!

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At the crossroad in the middle of the street, we saw this guy with a very simple stall. He seems to have become a roundabout for the crossroad for electric motorbikes were whizzing past and around him all the time.

Even though his stall is so simple that he could just carry the entire restaurant home when he’s done for the day, there was a queue for his food. I suppose the location helps, but then again, other shops in the area were completely devoid of customers.

Most of his customers are families who live in Tunxi itself, while most of the families who live in Tunxi run shops that caters to foreign tourists.

Even though he makes his food by hand, it is very hygienic for he refuses to touch anything that could contaminate. His customers place their payment into a neatly arranged money box and remove the change on their own.

He used to serve his wonton in cheap plastic bowls, but a VIP who visited suggested that he uses better quality bowls.

This sparked in him a lot of marketing ideas. He printed his own bowls that brands himself as the famous Tunxi wonton stall and his own plastic spoons that he gives away as souvenirs. That way, customers could bring home the spoon and tell their friends.

The men were so impressed by this marketing genius, they insisted on taking a photo with him.

I too was gobsmacked when I discovered, the wonton seller at Tunxi is a blogger too!

He’s upgrading his stall to a solid restaurant with walls. If you’d like to know where he’s moving to, click to visit his blog.

Since we had planned to climb Mount Huangshan the next day, we headed back for the Huangshan hostel early to rest.

Genuine pungent tofu!

Simon got really excited as this is his favorite dish in the whole of China. We ordered one bowl. I took a bite.


It was all right. A bit moldy. I still prefer pungent cheeses.

The female shopowner told us we were eating the wrong item. Huangshan town is not famous for pungent tofu but for hairy tofu. She showed us what it looks like.

Tofu with a thick layer of mold fur growing all over it. Nice! We accepted her challenge. She cooked it for us. I took a bite.

It’s very creamy, almost like melted cheese. I prefer this to pungent tofu. The friendly female shopkeeper also asked if we wanted fried snails which I prefer to call mini Escargot.

My female friend told me I should get Nic to eat mini escargot more often. I have no idea why she suggested that. Sucking one out of its shell requires so much breath and patience.

The shopkeeper was making vegetarian dumplings for her son who does not like to eat meat. We decided we wanted a plate of it too.

I absolutely love these dumplings even though the skin’s not as thin as the one we had in Wuzhen. I think it’s because I feel healthier. Noticing our enthusiasm, the shopkeeper offered to cook us bamboo shoots.

Shock! Just look at the size of one bamboo shoot here. So different from the ones we have back home. We didn’t order as we were already full from eating wonton at a road side stall earlier. Oh, did I forget to tell you about the wonton seller?

Tunxi is a short street of only 1.5 kilometers long and 7m wide.

Shophouses made of brick and wood line both sides of the street. Just like the ancient shophouses in Melaka, these shops are not very wide but are very deep.

The brush shops sells brushes made of squirrel fur, wolf fur, goat fur, goat’s underside fur, and most luxurious of all, badger’s underarm fur. I picked up a really soft goat’s underside fur brush to apply my lose powder. :)

Before that, we stopped by a shop that sells charms with your name on for about 20 minutes. Uncle and Aunty Lee chose charms for all their relatives. I bought a few with my family name on to give away to relatives.

We passed a few shops that sells all kinds of tea by pounds and kilograms.

Roadside stalls were set up to sell antique curios

We spent a long time looking at these fascinating curios

But none of us bought anything. I guess we weren’t sure how to value the items.

Since it was a weekday afternoon, almost all the stall owners and shop owners were playing Mah Jong on the street!

Those who weren’t playing Mah Jong were playing Chinese Chess on the street.

One or two were dead committed to manning the shop even if there weren’t any patrons but boy were they feeling bored and sleepy.

Even the dog felt lazy.

We saw a lady folding leaves into dragons. Don’t you think this one looks like the dragon in the cartoon Mulan?

As we continued walking down the street, the wafting smell of pungent tofu caught our attention…

It’s really helpful if you could read chinese characters. We checked the schedule on the board

And sent Simon to get our tickets.

When we tried to get into the waiting area, we were surprised to be subjected to baggage inspection. It was just like an airport.

At the waiting area, a lady came around pushing a cartload of food and drinks but we didn’t buy anything.

We saw that people were queued up at our boarding gate so we decided to join them.

On the bus, there was this neat little contraption that spews out water when you press your finger. How cool is that?

After a few hours, we reached Huangshan and took two taxis to our hostel. Don’t remember how much it costs but it wasn’t very expensive.

Here we are at Huangshan!

So glad to finally get here. Here’s a peek of my room.

It comes with an attached bathroom. I love that it’s so bright and pretty!