Huang shan

Easily the best thing (mountain-wise) I experienced in China so far. Although it is pretty cold up on the top (I saw my first solid ice in China - not including the one at the skating ring) it is well worth every mao you pay (of course during the off-season in December :) ). More detailed description follows below.

First leg of my trip started at 7.28am when I left comfortable and english apeaking Shanghai on the bus for Tunxi in Anhui province. We arrived short after noon. I was dropped at Tunxi coach station but I am sure you can ask the driver to be dropped at Huanshan shi train station (Huangshan shi is the locals' name for Tunxi and is shorter - which goes very well with Chinese people). From both places there is no problem to get a ride to Tangkou (village at the foot of the mountain) by local minibus (18 kuai today - nonnegotiable upticked price from 10 kuai mentioned in Lonely planet).

Tangkou is typical mountain village whose architecture distincts it from European counterparts. From there you have to take another bus (14 kuai) or taxi (negotiable but only advantageous for group of people) to get to the bottom of the trails leading up to huang shan (cable car is option for disabled :) ).

I took eastern steps - shorter way - in order to get up as quickly as possible to be able to book accommodation. As already mentioned, the time of the year makes it very easy for budget travellers as everything is discounted by huge amounts (entrance to the park - 100 kuai instead of 200, accommodation - 60 kuai without negotiation). The whole point in staying at the top of the mountain is to watch the sunrise over the Northern sea. I have to admit it is well worth it (even if you get up only for the half of it as I did :) ).

Way back, which for me was via western steps, is more photogenic with the stellar views. It is at least twice as long as the way up (it offers plenty of bypasses and optional prolongations for the strong ones). During my visit two of the highest peaks (Lotus and Jade peak) were closed which is often the case according to Lonely planet and flegmatic responses of the domestic tourists.

Getting back from the park gates to Tunxi (city with available train and long distance bus connections) you have to go through ordeal of transfers again. As Tunxi is not famous for anything I bought the next ticket for Changsha immediately after the drop off from the minibus. Only problem is that if there is no direct connection available you have to go from city to city and hope for available seats at the trains (therefore I'm taking overnight train to Zhuzhou only). Ticket counters are able to sell tickets only for direct connections from their city - TIC.

Unfortunately, I had to abandon my planned visit of Sanqing shan as it seems nobody knows about this mountain (included in the UNESCO list only this year) or is not able to understand my pronounciation. I believe this is not the case as on occassion I can speak in simple Chinese with other people - e.g. I got to the point to understand questions such as "where are you from?", "how old are you?", "what do you do?" and similar. Of course it is more due to the fact that they speak with me as with an imbecile and virtually everyone on the trails is asking above mentioned questions (sightings of foreigners are not so often this tim eof the year). Anyway, I will try to visit Sanqing shan in spring and I will bring some chinese friend as a help.

Next stage of the journey will therefore take me to Changsha - epicentre of the Hunan cuisine (one of the spiciest in China - I am so happy - I want to cry :) ) and Mao culture. Hope there will be more opportunities along the way to post some news and to upload some pictures. This post is written from the lobby of Tunxi hostel where they kindly let me and fulfilled all my requests - of course for appropriate charge :)

Note on Chinese culture / soul
So far what I have learned is that virtually everyone is in for a buck - meaning the buck for himself. The good thing is that it means that you can buy anything. The bad thing is that you have to beware as first price is substantially marked up to the price sellers / services providers are ready to accept. You have to bargain and you have to bargain hard. If you do not know it or you do not have the stomach to do it, take knowledgeable person with you or just avoid China :) The system works to such an extent that there is a chain of cooperation between self made man (i.e. shadow / off-the-books economy) which completely bypasses anything in uniform. For example, taxi drivers cooperate with minibus drivers and drop their passengers at the preagreed sites (meaning at the door of the minibus) - which is kind of comfortable for the customers :) Even more so, official park service bus drivers cooperate with taxi drivers because they are lazy / it is inefficient to drive nearly empty bus down. It is very funny to watch taxi drivers taking all the potential customers from the official buses ticket sale window (literally) and seeing employees just watch the opportunity of actually selling some tickets walk by. And I'm completely omitting cooperation of restaurant and accommodation enterpreneurs with the above mentioned. Strangely, it helps customers to get the best service. Although only for the money you are able / willing to pay. This is more capitalistic system than the one developed oversees and celebrated by everyone (although not lately :) ). Invisible hand has never been so visible.