New Year's Day 2024 - Climbing Huangshan

At the end of 2023, combined with the three-day New Year holiday, I planned to take my child to climb Mount Huangshan and visit the strange rocks of Huangshan from the second-grade textbook.

Day one: I set off early in the morning,

drove to Huangshan North Station, and passed by to see Chengkan Ancient Town. This is a 5A scenic area, costing 107 yuan—the ticket was a bit pricey, but otherwise nice. Chengkan was built during the Three Kingdoms period, laid out according to the four main trigrams of the innate Bagua, and is known as the number one feng shui village. I don't understand feng shui, but the village is quite beautiful. Walking around, the Sun-Dried Autumn Square area is the highlight of the scenery, and the ancient village itself is worth exploring.

Leaving the ancient village, I saw Xunfeng Pagoda along the way and soon arrived at Huangshan North Station.

After school at noon, my child took a high-speed train to Huangshan North Station. In the evening, we met at the station and headed straight to Tangkou Town.

Now Huangshan is really convenient—from Shanghai, a three-hour high-speed train or a five-plus-hour drive, still fairly easy. Twenty years ago, I also stayed in Tangkou when visiting Huangshan; the previously small town is now brightly lit. The highway toll gate was built opposite the Huangshan Tourist Distribution Center, which is the next day's scenic area bus stop—the Zhaixi Transfer Center. Not far from the highway exit, we checked into the Manxin Hotel. In the evening, we had stinky mandarin fish and hairy tofu, which tasted good. My child had a slight fever at the time but was in good spirits—commendable to visit Huangshan despite being ill.

Day two: Early in the morning, we checked out, left the car at the hotel, and walked lightly to the transfer center. A 20-minute walk; we had bought all tickets online in advance, and simply swiped our ID cards to transfer. Huangshan's management is very good. The scenic bus took half an hour directly to Yungu Temple. Lacking the courage and stamina to hike up as I did twenty years ago, we took the cable car directly up. Huangshan is a World Heritage site, with granite rock faces. The mountainsides on both sides of the cable car are steep, but the Huangshan pines here truly grow on sheer cliffs, and most of the trees are pines—truly unique.

In about ten minutes, we reached the top station of the Baie Ling cable car. There was no snow, the weather was a bit overcast, the roads had no ice, but in some corners there was still residual snow from previous days. The surrounding scenery was truly beautiful—Huangshan never disappoints at any time. Our Huangshan journey began here. The mountaintop area is very large; we chose to stay overnight. Since it was winter, the West Sea was closed, Lotus Peak was on a five-year rotation closure, and Tiandu Peak would open next April. We opted for a leisurely tour around the mountains. Coming up from the back mountain, we first went to Shixin Peak. Climbing to the top wasn't tiring, and there weren't too many people. The view from the top was stunning—fantastic rocks, dense strange pines, facing emptiness on three sides with thousand-meter cliffs. It's also the easternmost part of Huangshan, an excellent spot for sunrise in winter mornings.

After scrambling down Shixin Peak, not far away was Mengbi Shenghua, a landmark spot. Located to the left of Sanhua Wu in Beihai, there is an isolated stone peak shaped like a brush with its tip pointing upward, and a strange pine grows on top like a flower, hence the name "Mengbi Shenghua" (Dreaming of Writing). Legend says this brush is Li Bai's. There's a story about this brush: In 1982, this ancient Huangshan pine, almost as famous as the national treasure Guest-Greeting Pine, began to wither and eventually died completely. For the garden bureau of the Huangshan Scenic Area Management Committee, this was a catastrophic event. In an emergency, they replaced it with an artificial tree for 17 years. Later, under the efforts of then-director Li Jinshui, in 2004 a new Huangshan pine was selected and transplanted to the original position of the former Rao-Long Pine at Mengbi Shenghua, and successfully maintained. The scene of Mengbi Shenghua finally returned to its natural state.

Leaving Mengbi Shenghua, we walked and looked around, queued at Qingliangtai for photos, and admired the spectacular Huangshan scenery. Not far was Houzi Guanhai (Monkey Gazing at the Sea); my child's textbook illustration is from here, so it was a must-visit. The scenery was flawless. The weather turned slightly overcast, but the views remained beautiful.

Continuing on, we passed by Shilin Hotel and the Unity Pine (Tuanjie Song). At noon, we arrived at the West Sea Hotel, which we had reserved. It was excellent—aside from the high prices on the mountaintop, it was almost no different from the ground. Compared to twenty years ago, the material conditions at Huangshan are now beyond comparison.

After a short noon rest, we went to see Feilai Shi (Flying Rock). Walking along, this section was the most tiring of the day—all uphill climbing, over two kilometers of steep ascent, truly invigorating. Along the way, we first caught a distant view of Feilai Shi, very beautiful, and encountered Huangshan monkeys, quite cute and far less aggressive than those at Mount Emei. We reached Feilai Shi right by the roadside, a small slope with a dozen steps up to the peak where Feilai Shi stands. The top was small, with Feilai Shi in the middle, half protected by railings and the other half completely open to the cliff edge below. Going up to touch Feilai Shi was absolutely thrilling.

The 1987 version of Dream of the Red Chamber also filmed here. Twenty years ago, my impression of Feilai Shi was very vague, as if I hadn't climbed it. This time it was a fulfillment.

Leaving Feilai Shi, we walked with stops, watched squirrels, and went directly to Paiyun Ting (Cloud-Dispelling Pavilion) to see the sunset. It was still early, so we looked at the West Sea Grand Canyon—spectacular! Paiyun Ting is located at the West Sea Gate of Huangshan Scenic Area, built in 1935 with granite strips, and the stone lintel is carved with the characters "排云亭". The view is open, making it the best spot to appreciate the fantastic rocks and wonders of Huangshan. Because clouds and mist often rise and roll in the West Sea valley, only to dissipate when they reach the stone pavilion, it is named "Paiyun Ting" (Cloud-Dispelling Pavilion). It is a national key cultural relic protection unit, a prime location for sunset viewing. We sat in the first row; by just after 5 p.m., more and more people gathered.

The sunset arrived on time. The weather had been slightly overcast in the morning, but the sunset was perfect.

After watching the sunset, we walked ten minutes back to the hotel. The evening buffet was quite abundant; at 180 yuan, it was very reasonable compared to the prices on Huangshan's mountaintop twenty years ago. After dinner, we asked the staff, and they said that in winter, sunrise can only be seen from Shixin Peak or Bright Summit. So we gave up the plan to go to Danxia Peak for sunrise the next morning and had a good night's sleep.

Day three: The weather was very good. While having breakfast, some tourists who had returned from Shixin Peak said the sunrise was very beautiful. After breakfast, we checked out and left, abandoning the road to Feilai Shi and taking the path via Unity Pine and Big King Pine to Bright Summit. This route was much easier to walk. In about an hour, we reached Bright Summit, and the scenery was stunning. We took various photos—sea of clouds, strange rocks, overlooking various peaks—truly an excellent location with fantastic scenery.

At an elevation of 1,860 meters, it is the second highest peak of Huangshan, together with Tiandu Peak and Lotus Peak, known as the three main peaks. The top is flat and spacious, with hotels, a weather station, and everything. The view is really good—the eastern sea wonders, the western sea peaks, and peaks like Danlian, Tiandu, Lianhua, Yuping, Aoyu, all in sight. The monument at Bright Summit had lines for photos. After lingering for about an hour, we started descending. The front mountain was beautiful and steep. Passing Aoyu Peak, we were a bit tired and didn't choose to climb it; we walked around the mountainside, enjoying the unique scenery. We walked along various steps, cliffs, and beautiful sights. My child checked off the point of "Immortal Pointing the Way." Before the cable car, we passed below Lotus Peak, which I had climbed twenty years ago. We walked all the way to Yuping Tower (Jade Screen Pavilion), saw the famous Guest-Greeting Pine, and successfully completed our Huangshan trip.

Going down the "Hero's Path," we reached the front mountain downhill cable car, descended to Ciguang Pavilion, took the bus back to the transfer center, bought some Huangshan pastries, and drove away from Huangshan.

In just over two hours, we arrived at Lin'an, Hangzhou, and chose the Tuankou Zhong'an Huizun Hot Spring Resort. The only thing to do here was relax in hot springs. The resort was large. After checking in, we could park the car right outside the room. The hotel was all-inclusive, covering hot springs, breakfast, and dinner. The resort has three hot spring areas. First, we went to the Four Trees Hot Spring—not too crowded, very comfortable. After soaking, we had the buffet dinner and ate well before sleeping.

Day four: Breakfast was excellent. After eating, we went to the mountain-view hot spring, a popular photo spot. We were among the first in at 9 a.m., so it was uncrowded and good for photos. The infinity pool water was too cold, but the man-made cave of the radon spring was very nice—comfortable and great for photos. My child had fun too. After soaking in various pools in turn, before leaving the hotel, we played on the rainbow slide, perfectly ending the New Year trip.

In the afternoon, we returned home smoothly in four hours.