Vacation in China 2009: The Yellow Mountain in Winter

Located in southern Anhui Province, The Yellow Mountain, also known as The Mount Huangshan, covers an area of 250 square kilometers, of which 154 square kilometers are scenic attractions. Its landscape features "four wonders" of imposing peaks, spectacular rocks, odd-shaped pines and sea of clouds. Known as the "loveliest mountain of China", Huangshan was acclaimed through art and literature during a good part of Chinese history. In 1990, Mount Huangshan went on both the world cultural and natural heritage lists.
Huangshan is only 50 miles away from Tunxi. Since I hiked Huangshan twice before, this time I planned to enjoy the hot spring for half day and then go to JiuHua Mountain, one of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism. That morning when I arrived at Tangkou, the little town at the foot of Huangshan, the local people told me it had a heavy snow the day before. I have heard so many times that a white Huangshan looks especially spectacular. I changed my plan, and decided to hike the mountain covered with snow. I wrapped my boots with rubber bags, put on a pair of ice grasps under the boots, and I was ready to go!
I took the cable car (the double blue lines on the right of the scenery map below) to White Goose Station and began my hike through the back side of the mountain. I barely met any other travelers on the road. When I stood at the vista points, looking out the cloud sea in the distance and viewing the majestic peaks nearby, I truly felt like I'm in paradise. The views couldn't be described by any words. Upon the time I arrived at "Flying Stone", it became very foggy, and the road condition became very rough and dangerous. I met a group of hikers on my way to the front side of the Mountain, they told me they turned around because they couldn't go further due to the road condition. I decided to accompany them to go back to White Goose Station and then went down the mountain by the cable car. I didn't have the the time to hike the front side of the mountain which is more precipitous, but I'll definitely come back some day. Good bye, Mount Huangshan! (Click the pic to view larger)

Here is a scenery map of Huangshan. I marked the place I hiked in red.


The following pictures are the views of the back side of the Hunagshan. They include ShiXing Peak, Goddess Peak, Stone Bamboo Peak, North Sea and West Sea..

































The Flying Stone:











A pine tree growing from the granite rock:




The famous Black Tiger Pine:




A smoking snow man found on the front of North Sea hotel:




There are five hotels in Huangshan, most of them are located on the top of the mountain. The cable car can only carry the supplies for the hotels to the middle of the mountain, the rest of the transportation has to be completed by human labor. It is a very tough work:




Though I didn't have the time to hike the front side of Huangshan, I still want you to have a peek of some of the famous scenic spots on the front side.


YingKe (Welcome) Pine:




TianDu (Capital of Heaven) Peak:



West See Grand Canyon:








YuPing (Jade) Peak:




A Thread of Sky: