August 11th, 2007
Sunrise.
What I didn’t realize going into it is that you’re competing with hundreds of other people all clamoring to get one of the premium places from which to view the sunrise.
After six to ten hours of walking up and down stairs each day, it would be easy to complain - until you see how every bite of food, every drop of water you drink, and everything you use is brought up the mountain. These guys are paid 100 RMB (about $13) to carry a 130 pound load all the way up one of the mountains. It takes at least 4 hours (or much more, depending on where they are going). They try to make two trips a day to maximize their income. Check out the little black and green logo on the box.
Huangshan is also absolutely packed with architectural wonders. On one of my hikes I would occasionally run into hikers returning from the place I was heading toward. I have never seen people so sun-beat, road weary, and dripping with sweat. They all insisted the views were good…but be prepared for a two hour straight uphill climb to get back. It was worth it.
Fairy Tale Bridge crosses a sheer divide between two rock faces.
And most amazing of all, to me at least, was what I simply call “the sidewalk”. If you want proof the Chinese can do anything they put their minds to, this is it. There’s a place where the mountains become impassible - any way you turn it is either straight up or straight down for thousands of feet. So the Chinese “bolted” a sidewalk to the side of this sheer vertical drop. This way you can continue to work around the side of the mountain.
Below you is simply thousands of feet of air. You can walk on this for an hour before you reach the end. Stepping onto this sidewalk is a freaky experience.
If you look closely at the last of the three photos above, you can see the sidewalk running along one of the mountains in the background.