22 November 98
Instead of heading north, I decided to go west and visit the nearby Huangshan in neighboring province Anhui. The coach from Hangzhou took off at 07:30 and arrived at 15:00. Touts offering accommodation boarded the bus as we approached Huangshan and started plying their services; the promotional talk sounded good enough to rope me in.
Huangshan is actually a late-comer on the tourist scene. The five sacred peaks had already established fame and attracted flocking tourists when 13th century intrepid backpacker Xuxiake gave Huangshan a tour. His verdict: After Huangshan, the sacred peaks are not worth a look. As an aside, Xuxiake was an itinerant backpacker who wrote a book Xuxiake Youji (Xuxiake’s travelogue). The book’s importance lay in the fact that it tried to debunk old myths (e.g. the source of the Yellow River is in heaven) by conducting actual explorations.
At any rate, I was now settled in a mom and pop guesthouse and was persuaded to join a Huangshan tour for RMB 109. The price included transportation to the eastern entrance Yungusi, entrance tickets and return transportation. There was supposed to be a guide, but I lost him after 07:30 or so. I simply could not keep pace with him. There was no way I could get lost anyway, as there was only one way: up.
After enduring hours of pestering from the insistent touts offering to carry my equipment and overpriced drinks, I finally made it to White Swan Summit. After a short instant noodle lunch break with extra salt to replenish fluid loss, it was another march to Bright Summit Peak and neighboring sights. By 15:30 I was more than willing to part with RMB 55 to take the Jade Screen Peak cable car down the mountain.