It was quite nice to be on a bus seeing the scenery after mostly taking the train and flying and the higher we went the less hazy the air was. Our journey was cut short unexpectedly, some 70km from Húang Shān, our expected destination. We’d missed a vital character on the end of Húang Shān that was printed on the bus tickets and that was the Shi bit, meaning City. So, we’d ended up in a place called Túnxī, otherwise known as Húang Shān City (Shi). Why its just not called one or the other we’ll never know but we’ve since learnt its caught more than one traveller out! One girl thought she was going to Húang Shān Shi but she ended up at Húang Shān (mountain) and was really stuck! We managed to find a local bus that got us to Húang Shān for about ¼ of the price of a taxi. A bit of a hoohah but Euan wasn’t quite so impressed with my Chinese writing skills as he was when I came out of the Post Office with the tickets in hand!!
The tables turned and the higher we got, the mistier it got and the more we thought we’d miss seeing anything of the mountain. It was always going to be a gamble, coming this far to do this but mist or no mist, we were going up that mountain. We were somewhat unceremoniously dumped from the mini bus on the edge of a street that we knew wasn’t in Tāngkŏu (the small town at the foot of the mountain where we were staying). We didn’t know which direction to walk and were standing there debating this when a lady came over to say hello, (not in English) and proceeded to talk away to us before calling someone on her mobile. A few minutes later a tiny wee chap appears in a black car and comes over to us, very serious and says “I am Mr Hu”. Euan was looking at him, like “and…..?” but I’d heard about this guy and he’s a bit of a legend among travellers to these parts. He had absolutely no obligation to us but picked us up and drove us the 4km to Tāngkŏu where he helped us find a place to stay and we ended up getting the nicest room we’ve had yet for 120 yuan (£10/night) (the board price was something ridiculous like 520 yuan).
Tāngkŏu is a tiny town of 3,000 people that sits at the foot of Húang Shān and it was really nice to be in a place that was relatively isolated, off the beaten track and not crawling with tourists, Chinese or other. Tāngkŏu runs either side of a river that comes down from the mountain and the photo below was taken from the main road bridge, looking up towards the mountain (you can just see a tiny bit of the mountain peeking through the clouds)
It was Mr Hu who suggested that we hike to the 'Nine Dragons Waterfall' before hiking up the mountain and we thought it was a great idea until we got in the car and took a steep decent for a few kms. Given that Tāngkŏu is at the foot of the mountain, to be going further down we deemed to be a very bad thing. We were tempted by sedan chair (joking) but it just seemed plain wrong, so continued on foot.
The hike up to the waterfall was OK but we wouldn’t have done it had we known what was to come. The signs cracked us up though and we had to share this one (love the bit about the ‘mank’! Its as good as the one in Vietnam that advised us to bring our ‘personal parpers’ - that cracked me right up as Euans brothers and sister may well remember).
The waterfall was OK, nothing spectacular but at 120m it would be impressive when in full flow. It was quite hazy so difficult to get a decent shot
but the bamboo forest was pretty cool
The steps were the killers though and we reckon that the hike up through the waterfall added on at least 6km to the day. I’ve read that many serious hikers laugh at Húang Shāns height and climb (real climbers wouldn’t even consider it I don’t think!) but we’re definitely not serious hikers or climbers! We don't think 7.5km of non-stop steps is funny OR easy!
We reached the foot of the mountain a few hours after we’d started and were tempted by the cableway but that would be cheating so we carried on up the 7.5km of steps. Everything on the mountain is carried up by porters and like any mountain porters the world over, they’re hard as nails. These guys were repairing some of the path and, judging by the bend in the supporting stick, this rock looked mighty heavy
This guy walked up with us, carrying a load of piping
and this guy was near the top and was suffering, but look at what he’s carrying… he was so overloaded and he couldn’t get up these steps more than about three at a time before stopping to rest. That container of water is more than 30kg AND he’d got a case of beer that end as well
Húang Shān is only about 2000m high, covers an area of 154 square kms with 72 peaks and seems to be shrouded in mist on a regular basis. The mist rolled up the mountain (faster than us!), then down again, almost teasing us with views of some of the smaller craggy peaks. We were impressed but this turned out to be nothing compared to what was above, we just couldn’t see it!
A welcome break (Euans shot up a few inches)
We reached the top and headed off (in the wrong direction) to find where we were staying. We were a bit peeved to find we’d hiked up another few 100 steps only to have to turn and go back down. We did come across a viewing platform though and there was obviously something pretty special behind all that mist!
We were staying in a dorm room in one of the hotels on the top of the mountain and once we found it, we were amazed at what was up there: Bank of China, a China Mobile store, Police station, a handful of hotels and a few tiny supermarkets…. We weren’t isolated that’s for sure. The effort and cost that had gone into making this mountain accessible was huge and we estimated that there must be at least 60km of concrete and granite steps broken up with a few short paths all over the mountain. Even though the mountain isn’t high it was damn cold; much colder than we expected. We’d carried up enough food, clothes and water but we could have been a bit more generous with the base layers.
The dorm room we stayed in? Well. That’s a story in itself. We were led deep into the depths of this ‘4 star’ hotel, upstairs, down a corridor and into a very dark room. I was lagging behind and saw Euan disappear into what looked like a cupboard. I went in then came out again, then went back in because there was nowhere else he could have gone. It turned out to be the (very dark) hotel ball room that had been turned into what looked like an emergency shelter with mattresses on the floor, bunk beds all over the place and another room that had makeshift plastic screening with yet more bunk beds. We were in one room with six bunk beds and had it all to ourselves, with a few rats thrown in for good measure. This hotel had a rat problem like you wouldn’t believe. We suspected something was up when a Chinese woman screamed blue murder in the room behind us and then we saw the rats while sitting eating our pot noodles. Euan assured me (just to shut me up I suspect on hindsight!) that rats have no interest in sleeping people so when the lights went out at 9pm, we settled down to sleep. I was lying with my ear on the pillow and could hear this strumming and feel a vibration in the bed frame. Then there was this movement right next to Euans head and it was a bloody rat coming up the bed-frame and coming out in the gap between our bunks. Euan sat bolt upright in a hurry and said “WHAT THE %*&$ WAS THAT???”. That was it. No sleeping after that. We debated decamping to the reception area with our duvets but in the end got so tired and fell asleep so we’ve no idea what the damn rats got up to in the night but we weren’t eaten.
We woke to a stunning day (we were SO lucky as it had been filthy weather for the past week) and started on our way at 0545 to catch the sunrise. This was some of what was hidden behind the mist we’d seen the day before.
The lookouts were right on the edge of sheer drops off the granite cliffs and I found it quite exhilarating to stand on the edge and look right over. It felt so high.
So, the view went from this
to this!
We didn’t stop after sunrise and spent a good few hours hiking round the tracks on the top as there are so many different trails/steps
There were loads of sheer cliffs with paths that had been literally stuck on the edge
This shows the paths from a distance and gives the scale
and we had no idea when we first went along that way that they were stuck on like that!
We just couldn’t get enough of the scenery
and while this isn’t a high mountain by any means, it really packed some punch and gave you the feeling that you were on top of the world
There weren’t too many people on the mountain but we were amazed at the kids who were tackling the stairs with real relish. This chap was going up on all fours (something we tried on the near vertical bits and it worked well!) and doing his best to keep up with Euan
All the ridges and rocks had unusual (and lengthy) names such as “Golden Cock Crowing towards Heavenly Gate” but this rock was simply called “Flying-over Rock” and apparently weighed over 500 tonnes. The group of guys to my right in the below all wanted their photo taken with me. It took a long time; the first few were conservative and stood next to me, then one put his hand on my shoulder and it was game on. Then the rest wanted their photo again with their hand on my shoulder and we went through the picture taking process all over again. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a celebrity somehow ;-)
This was Lotus Flower Peak, the highest peak at 1873m. Unfortunately it was closed and we couldn’t climb it but Euan heaved a sigh of relief as I was dead set on doing that as well as the 3rd highest that was right next-door.
This shows more of the top of the mountain. We’d been hiking a few hours by the time we reached the building with the dome on top (on the horizon). Its deceiving as the peaks don’t look that far away but you have to go down, then up and down a few times before you get there.
Now this just seems plain wrong. We couldn’t believe people actually took the sedan chairs
This is the third highest peak at 1810m and is called “Heavenly Capital Peak”. It didn’t look too bad from here but we had to drop a long way before going up again. It was about 11am and by this stage, I was on my own when it came to climbing the peak. I’d commented that I was starting to fade (we’d had two mandarins for breakfast and been going for 5 ½ hours)) and got a very blunt response “I’ve faded”.
The mist was still rolling in and out but when it cleared, there were granite cliffs and pines as far as the eye could see
and this was on our way down to the base of the Heavenly Peak
Now this guy was just remarkable. He has three scaffolding poles and is carting them up the 15km of Western Steps. Some of the steps were through narrow passes no more than 1m wide.
At the bottom of Heavenly Peak I said to Euan I’d meet him at the other side and got another blunt response “Oh &%*& it. I’ll come”. I’m glad he did as it was too amazing not to have someone to share it with! This photo is taken ½ way up and shows the route we’d taken. We’d passed through the two peaks in the distance, gone up and down around the edge then come down the steps on the right of the photo (you can just see a building in the top right)
The work that has gone into making that mountain accessible is amazing. These steps were some of many that had been carved out of the granite and they’d even carved in a handrail
the end of which was carved in the shape of a snakes head
Now this guy was a legend. He’d come up the opposite side to us, 2.5km of nothing but steps that were just as tough to go down as going up. The suit, the white gloves, and the cane… he was brilliant. He stopped, completely composed, to say hello and something else to me that I didn’t understand then carried on down. I debated putting this photo in as it probably makes the whole thing seem like a doddle. I acknowledge that it certainly isn’t hard core mountaineering but its not a walk in the park either. This guy is just hard as nails. They definitely breed them tough in China and I’ll bet this guy has been doing this since he could walk. Absolute respect.
This is called “Crucian Carps Back” and while its grey behind, you could see it was a sheer drop either side.
The top appeared really high, mainly because the sides just dropped straight down. You might wonder why there are no photos of Euan here? Its because I couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried, persuade him to go closer to the edge. No way and that was that.
I couldn’t even trick him into believing that the sides sloped off because it was so obvious that they didn’t!
This was a really narrow staircase that was quite cool to walk down but there was nothing to stop you at the bottom if you slipped
Once we were out of the granite cliffs the steps down went on and on and got a wee bit tedious. Just when we thought we were there, yet more steps appeared but we took some satisfaction of seeing folk hiking up. Wouldn’t catch me hiking up the Western Steps – I don’t think you see so much if your head is down slogging it uphill.
This is a better picture of Tāngkŏu with the mountain in the background.
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Given the opportunity, I’d happily hike up Húang Shān again as the scenery is so stunning, changeable and unless its completely covered in fog, would be beautiful no matter what.
Our legs were not much good for anything for a few days after (and gave way on us more than once!) and luckily we spent the next day on a bus to Shanghai. I guess that’s what you get for being inactive for 6+ months then hiking about 35km of steps over two days! Throw in a bad nights sleep, little food and there is a sure-fire recipe for two knackered individuals! I’d do it again in a second. Euan? I’m not so sure :-)
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The tables turned and the higher we got, the mistier it got and the more we thought we’d miss seeing anything of the mountain. It was always going to be a gamble, coming this far to do this but mist or no mist, we were going up that mountain. We were somewhat unceremoniously dumped from the mini bus on the edge of a street that we knew wasn’t in Tāngkŏu (the small town at the foot of the mountain where we were staying). We didn’t know which direction to walk and were standing there debating this when a lady came over to say hello, (not in English) and proceeded to talk away to us before calling someone on her mobile. A few minutes later a tiny wee chap appears in a black car and comes over to us, very serious and says “I am Mr Hu”. Euan was looking at him, like “and…..?” but I’d heard about this guy and he’s a bit of a legend among travellers to these parts. He had absolutely no obligation to us but picked us up and drove us the 4km to Tāngkŏu where he helped us find a place to stay and we ended up getting the nicest room we’ve had yet for 120 yuan (£10/night) (the board price was something ridiculous like 520 yuan).
Tāngkŏu is a tiny town of 3,000 people that sits at the foot of Húang Shān and it was really nice to be in a place that was relatively isolated, off the beaten track and not crawling with tourists, Chinese or other. Tāngkŏu runs either side of a river that comes down from the mountain and the photo below was taken from the main road bridge, looking up towards the mountain (you can just see a tiny bit of the mountain peeking through the clouds)
It was Mr Hu who suggested that we hike to the 'Nine Dragons Waterfall' before hiking up the mountain and we thought it was a great idea until we got in the car and took a steep decent for a few kms. Given that Tāngkŏu is at the foot of the mountain, to be going further down we deemed to be a very bad thing. We were tempted by sedan chair (joking) but it just seemed plain wrong, so continued on foot.
The hike up to the waterfall was OK but we wouldn’t have done it had we known what was to come. The signs cracked us up though and we had to share this one (love the bit about the ‘mank’! Its as good as the one in Vietnam that advised us to bring our ‘personal parpers’ - that cracked me right up as Euans brothers and sister may well remember).
The waterfall was OK, nothing spectacular but at 120m it would be impressive when in full flow. It was quite hazy so difficult to get a decent shot
but the bamboo forest was pretty cool
The steps were the killers though and we reckon that the hike up through the waterfall added on at least 6km to the day. I’ve read that many serious hikers laugh at Húang Shāns height and climb (real climbers wouldn’t even consider it I don’t think!) but we’re definitely not serious hikers or climbers! We don't think 7.5km of non-stop steps is funny OR easy!
We reached the foot of the mountain a few hours after we’d started and were tempted by the cableway but that would be cheating so we carried on up the 7.5km of steps. Everything on the mountain is carried up by porters and like any mountain porters the world over, they’re hard as nails. These guys were repairing some of the path and, judging by the bend in the supporting stick, this rock looked mighty heavy
This guy walked up with us, carrying a load of piping
and this guy was near the top and was suffering, but look at what he’s carrying… he was so overloaded and he couldn’t get up these steps more than about three at a time before stopping to rest. That container of water is more than 30kg AND he’d got a case of beer that end as well
Húang Shān is only about 2000m high, covers an area of 154 square kms with 72 peaks and seems to be shrouded in mist on a regular basis. The mist rolled up the mountain (faster than us!), then down again, almost teasing us with views of some of the smaller craggy peaks. We were impressed but this turned out to be nothing compared to what was above, we just couldn’t see it!
A welcome break (Euans shot up a few inches)
We reached the top and headed off (in the wrong direction) to find where we were staying. We were a bit peeved to find we’d hiked up another few 100 steps only to have to turn and go back down. We did come across a viewing platform though and there was obviously something pretty special behind all that mist!
We were staying in a dorm room in one of the hotels on the top of the mountain and once we found it, we were amazed at what was up there: Bank of China, a China Mobile store, Police station, a handful of hotels and a few tiny supermarkets…. We weren’t isolated that’s for sure. The effort and cost that had gone into making this mountain accessible was huge and we estimated that there must be at least 60km of concrete and granite steps broken up with a few short paths all over the mountain. Even though the mountain isn’t high it was damn cold; much colder than we expected. We’d carried up enough food, clothes and water but we could have been a bit more generous with the base layers.
The dorm room we stayed in? Well. That’s a story in itself. We were led deep into the depths of this ‘4 star’ hotel, upstairs, down a corridor and into a very dark room. I was lagging behind and saw Euan disappear into what looked like a cupboard. I went in then came out again, then went back in because there was nowhere else he could have gone. It turned out to be the (very dark) hotel ball room that had been turned into what looked like an emergency shelter with mattresses on the floor, bunk beds all over the place and another room that had makeshift plastic screening with yet more bunk beds. We were in one room with six bunk beds and had it all to ourselves, with a few rats thrown in for good measure. This hotel had a rat problem like you wouldn’t believe. We suspected something was up when a Chinese woman screamed blue murder in the room behind us and then we saw the rats while sitting eating our pot noodles. Euan assured me (just to shut me up I suspect on hindsight!) that rats have no interest in sleeping people so when the lights went out at 9pm, we settled down to sleep. I was lying with my ear on the pillow and could hear this strumming and feel a vibration in the bed frame. Then there was this movement right next to Euans head and it was a bloody rat coming up the bed-frame and coming out in the gap between our bunks. Euan sat bolt upright in a hurry and said “WHAT THE %*&$ WAS THAT???”. That was it. No sleeping after that. We debated decamping to the reception area with our duvets but in the end got so tired and fell asleep so we’ve no idea what the damn rats got up to in the night but we weren’t eaten.
We woke to a stunning day (we were SO lucky as it had been filthy weather for the past week) and started on our way at 0545 to catch the sunrise. This was some of what was hidden behind the mist we’d seen the day before.
The lookouts were right on the edge of sheer drops off the granite cliffs and I found it quite exhilarating to stand on the edge and look right over. It felt so high.
So, the view went from this
to this!
We didn’t stop after sunrise and spent a good few hours hiking round the tracks on the top as there are so many different trails/steps
There were loads of sheer cliffs with paths that had been literally stuck on the edge
This shows the paths from a distance and gives the scale
and we had no idea when we first went along that way that they were stuck on like that!
We just couldn’t get enough of the scenery
and while this isn’t a high mountain by any means, it really packed some punch and gave you the feeling that you were on top of the world
There weren’t too many people on the mountain but we were amazed at the kids who were tackling the stairs with real relish. This chap was going up on all fours (something we tried on the near vertical bits and it worked well!) and doing his best to keep up with Euan
All the ridges and rocks had unusual (and lengthy) names such as “Golden Cock Crowing towards Heavenly Gate” but this rock was simply called “Flying-over Rock” and apparently weighed over 500 tonnes. The group of guys to my right in the below all wanted their photo taken with me. It took a long time; the first few were conservative and stood next to me, then one put his hand on my shoulder and it was game on. Then the rest wanted their photo again with their hand on my shoulder and we went through the picture taking process all over again. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a celebrity somehow ;-)
This was Lotus Flower Peak, the highest peak at 1873m. Unfortunately it was closed and we couldn’t climb it but Euan heaved a sigh of relief as I was dead set on doing that as well as the 3rd highest that was right next-door.
This shows more of the top of the mountain. We’d been hiking a few hours by the time we reached the building with the dome on top (on the horizon). Its deceiving as the peaks don’t look that far away but you have to go down, then up and down a few times before you get there.
Now this just seems plain wrong. We couldn’t believe people actually took the sedan chairs
This is the third highest peak at 1810m and is called “Heavenly Capital Peak”. It didn’t look too bad from here but we had to drop a long way before going up again. It was about 11am and by this stage, I was on my own when it came to climbing the peak. I’d commented that I was starting to fade (we’d had two mandarins for breakfast and been going for 5 ½ hours)) and got a very blunt response “I’ve faded”.
The mist was still rolling in and out but when it cleared, there were granite cliffs and pines as far as the eye could see
and this was on our way down to the base of the Heavenly Peak
Now this guy was just remarkable. He has three scaffolding poles and is carting them up the 15km of Western Steps. Some of the steps were through narrow passes no more than 1m wide.
At the bottom of Heavenly Peak I said to Euan I’d meet him at the other side and got another blunt response “Oh &%*& it. I’ll come”. I’m glad he did as it was too amazing not to have someone to share it with! This photo is taken ½ way up and shows the route we’d taken. We’d passed through the two peaks in the distance, gone up and down around the edge then come down the steps on the right of the photo (you can just see a building in the top right)
The work that has gone into making that mountain accessible is amazing. These steps were some of many that had been carved out of the granite and they’d even carved in a handrail
the end of which was carved in the shape of a snakes head
Now this guy was a legend. He’d come up the opposite side to us, 2.5km of nothing but steps that were just as tough to go down as going up. The suit, the white gloves, and the cane… he was brilliant. He stopped, completely composed, to say hello and something else to me that I didn’t understand then carried on down. I debated putting this photo in as it probably makes the whole thing seem like a doddle. I acknowledge that it certainly isn’t hard core mountaineering but its not a walk in the park either. This guy is just hard as nails. They definitely breed them tough in China and I’ll bet this guy has been doing this since he could walk. Absolute respect.
This is called “Crucian Carps Back” and while its grey behind, you could see it was a sheer drop either side.
The top appeared really high, mainly because the sides just dropped straight down. You might wonder why there are no photos of Euan here? Its because I couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried, persuade him to go closer to the edge. No way and that was that.
I couldn’t even trick him into believing that the sides sloped off because it was so obvious that they didn’t!
This was a really narrow staircase that was quite cool to walk down but there was nothing to stop you at the bottom if you slipped
Once we were out of the granite cliffs the steps down went on and on and got a wee bit tedious. Just when we thought we were there, yet more steps appeared but we took some satisfaction of seeing folk hiking up. Wouldn’t catch me hiking up the Western Steps – I don’t think you see so much if your head is down slogging it uphill.
This is a better picture of Tāngkŏu with the mountain in the background.
.jpg)
Given the opportunity, I’d happily hike up Húang Shān again as the scenery is so stunning, changeable and unless its completely covered in fog, would be beautiful no matter what.
Our legs were not much good for anything for a few days after (and gave way on us more than once!) and luckily we spent the next day on a bus to Shanghai. I guess that’s what you get for being inactive for 6+ months then hiking about 35km of steps over two days! Throw in a bad nights sleep, little food and there is a sure-fire recipe for two knackered individuals! I’d do it again in a second. Euan? I’m not so sure :-)
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