Conquering Huang Shan

Originally Posted June 24, 2009

My friend Nell Cobb who has been teaching English at Jiangsu University is leaving China this week and she wanted to see something new and amazing for her last weekend. We didn't have a lot of time, but Nell had heard that Huang Shan was one of the two best scenic spots in China. Huang Shan, literally Yellow Mountain, is located in the Anhui province of China, approximately eight hours away from Zhenjiang by train. Chinese painters went there to paint scenery, and Deng Xiaoping suggested the use of Huang Shan as a tourist attraction to aid in "opening up" China (http://english.anhuinews.com/system/2008/06/06/002032424.shtml).

On Thursday night, I met with Nell to make plans for the weekend, and we ended up eating dinner with her friends Hilary and Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen is the deputy mayor of Zhenjiang, who Nell tutored in English last semester. He took us out to a high-class restaurant overlooking the Yangtze River, and we were served French-style goose liver, steak, and fresh salad. Mr. Chen was very generous.

Nell and I asked Hilary and Mr. Chen for advice on getting transportation to Huang Shan. We wanted to leave Friday night and return Saturday night. They said this was too little time, and that the weather was supposed to be poor, but Mr. Chen, with his many guanxi connections, including the head of the transportation department for Zhenjiang, called around to see if it was possible. After Mr. Chen kindly consulted several people, we found that there were trains at the exact times we wanted. We could not have figured out the details with out the help of Mr. Chen and Hilary. So, we decided to climb Huang Shan.

On Friday night I met Nell at the main gate of Jiangsu University, where she teaches. After buying water and food, we caught a midnight sleeper train to Huang Shan City. The car was air-conditioned and the bunks were decent. We both slept well and arrived at the train station on Saturday morning.

After wandering around for a while, we boarded a bus which was supposed to take us to the mountain itself. During the hour ride, we watched Chinese music videos and laughed at one particular song: a guy was standing next to his girlfriend, and they each arched their outside arm to form a heart over their heads. They rapped, "Jolin in the house...DT in the house...our love in the house...our sweet, sweet love." It was awful, and awfullly hillarious.

The bus dropped us off closer to the mountain, but not at the foot of the mountain like I had expected. So, a nice man named Mr. Hu drove us to the entrance, and Nell and I began our ascent of Huang Shan. We climbed along the road for about two hours, wearing orange flowers in our hair and everything! Then, after pineapple popsicles and visiting the gift shop, we took the cable car up the mountain. (Unfortunately, the entrance fee was almost three times what we had read it would be.)

The view was incredible. The mountain was so green, (not yellow :) ) and the granite rocks were magnificent. We climbed around the top of the mountain, visiting the various lookout points. We were literally in the clouds and at times, saw nothing but whiteness. Pure, empty white. I loved it! There is a Chinese saying that once you have been to Huang Shan you don't need to visit any other mountain.

At one point, we passed another group of foreigners. As they approached us, a tall, college-aged guy said, "Hey, white people!" meaning Nell and I. We laughed, and they laughed, and we went on our way. It's nice to see people who look like me, even though race has no real importance.

Nell and I began our descent of Huang Shan at five o'clock. We were hot and tired. As we hiked, we met a kind man warned us not to go down. I couldn't understand everything he said, but something about it being very late and not being able to see. So, we turned around to find another path, and met a nice group of people who spoke English.

They explained to us that the hike down the mountain was five to six hours, and it was impossible for us to make it down that quickly, and it was not safe to climb in the dark. No problem, I thought. We'll take the cable car down for a five-minute descent. And then the clincher: the last cable car left over an hour ago. We could stay in a hotel or rent a tent. The hotels, we knew, would be expensive. On top of the mountain, a bottle of water cost eight yuan instead of one. Plus, we had arranged to meet Nell's friend the next morning in Nanjing and attend church.

We really wanted to catch our train and go home. We didn't want to waste the train tickets we already had. We had climbed the hike to the main gate in almost half the time the guide books allotted, so we thought we could do it. I was, however, a little nervous, until Nell said that if we stayed in a hotel it would be like giving up, being defeated. "Huang Shan will not defeat us. We will conquer the mountain!" I said, half joking, half serious.

Maybe over-zealously, we decided to see how far we could get. Nell reasoned that God wanted us to go to church, and He would help us. So Nell stood overlooking the beautiful mountain scenery and prayed to God for help to climb down the mountain in time, so that she could go to church and "be less of a sinner." That touched me; I love Nell!

Huang Shan has been made tourist-friendly with endless stretches of concrete steps. Have you ever climbed stairs for four hours in one day? I have now! At the beginning of our descent, we were practically running, but by the end we were dragging each other along. As we hurried down, we sang Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" and asked each other weird questions like, "If you were a kitchen appliance/day of the week/ flower/ article of clothing, what would you be, and why?"

We made very good time judging by the trail markers, but we were still hiking at eight o'clock when the sun went down. Miraculously, I had brought a flashlight with me, so we whipped that out and continued down. We thought we were pretty close to the bottom, which was good because our legs had stopped doing what we told them to. We clung to the handrails and only stopped to rest when absolutely necessary.

It was dark and there were small cliffs on either side of the trail when I fell. I only tumbled a few steps before I caught myself-maybe adrenaline, maybe angels-, but I scared Nell half to death. Right there, without even standing up, I prayed and thanked Heavenly Father that I hadn't just died and for helping us to make such good time. We rested for a bit, and then walked on.

I don't even remember what time it was when we finally reached "Mercy Pavillion"--how appropriately named. A taxi driver was there waiting for stragglers like ourselves, and I quickly bargained for 260 yuan for a ride to the train station in Huang Shan City. When we got there, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream and marvelled that we had actually done made it. I was so glad we would be able to go to church!

But the night's adventures were not yet over...not only were all the beds sold out on the train when we tried to upgrade, the tickets we had purchased did not have seat numbers. There was absolutely no way I could have stood for nine hours. A kind, older man who had been laying down let us sit next to him. He was very kind. Very, very kind.

Even though I was beyond exhaustion, I only got about two hours of sleep that night. They left the light on in the train. The hard, straight-backed chairs were not conducive to sleep, either, but at least we weren't standing. I had finally reached a deep sleep when Nell woke me up--we were in Nanjing, and it was 5:30 a.m.

We cleaned up and ate breakfast in KFC (Nell's friend we had planned to meet for breakfast never came) and then went to church. I found out it was Fathers' Day (oops!) and enjoyed the talks about earthly and Heavenly fathers. I am very glad that we went to church because this was the last Sunday for a few families in the Nanjing Branch and I was able to say good-bye.
Our Huang Shan Episode taught me a few things: Always bring a flashlight, read the times posted on the cable cars, make time for church, and with God all things are possible, even conquering a gigantic, Chinese mountain.