Climbing down Mount Huangshan

Around 3 AM, people started getting up and running around outside the rooms. The sound of hocking loogies and yelling and banging on doors filled the air. They had absolutely no respect or consideration for other people. The sun was not supposed to rise until 5:something, yet they were trying to wake everyone to get up and ready. No one in my room was getting up yet, but I figured I would wait for them to leave and then I would get ready. After attempting to sleep for another hour, I got up, grabbed my stuff and went to the hotel bathroom to wash up. It was only 4 AM and there were two women doing the same thing. In the bathroom I met an American girl who said that she paid $80 to stay in the "servant's quarters." The place was such a rip off. My camera battery was dying, so after I got ready I found an outlet in a hallway of the hotel and sat there while it charged. No one even looked at me twice, maybe this was a normal thing to do.

I went to see the sunrise but decided it was not worth it. The whole point of going up Huangshan one day, spending the night and coming down the next day, is to see the sunrise. The previous night the tour guide that was at the sunset told me there was a 30% chance that the sun would rise. I wondered if there was a 70% chance of apocalypse that I was unaware of, but I assumed he meant that the sunset would not be dramatic.

I began the long hike down the mountain. Lonely Planet says that it is best to take the Eastern Steps up and the Western Steps down, because at least the hard parts are all downhill. They don't really tell you how much uphill you have to do as well. This was by far the hardest stairclimbing I have had to do. I went to the top of several peaks, including the Heavenly Capital Peak, which is the steepest of the peaks. Unfortunately the tallest (Lotus Peak) was closed off. Going up the Heavenly Capital Peak I was on all fours most of the time. There were parts of the stairs that were at 80 to 90 degree angles and you had to hold onto chains to support your weight and not fall back. I do not normally get vertigo, but I could not look down without feeling like I might fall off.

The thing that was so frustrating was that I kept thinking I was almost at the top of the peak, but I would get to the top of the steps and there would be another section and then another section and so on. I think this happened at least seven times before I got to the top. At one point along the way (almost to the top), I was walking and a group of Chinese tourists said hello. I said hello kindly even though I really just wanted to get to the top and drink some water. Then one of them said that they were students from some Aeronautics University in Nanjing. They had seen me during their trip and wanted to say hello. They asked if I would take a photo of them and then they asked if they could take a photo with me. When I asked why, they said, "Because you are the hero!" It was quite amusing and I am not sure what made me "the hero," maybe because I had a ridiculously large backpack on and most people were sane enough not to carry so much up a steep mountain. Anyway, we took photos and then we all began the descent down the peak. It was pretty frightening.

Later on during my descent, I had passed some more workers bringing goods up the mountain. It was very bizarre but on at least three occasions when I moved to the side to let them pass, a worker would touch my thigh. One other time a worker patted his thigh and looked at me. I don't know what that all meant, but I felt somewhat violated. It was very strange. I wonder if they do this to everyone who lets them go by.

By the end of the climb down, my knees were shot. It took me around six hours to get down the mountain (including climbing up Heavenly Capital Peak). I caught a bus to the hostel and the owner helped me buy a plane ticket. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of the owner, but he had the strangest eyes. I couldn't tell if he was just nervous and did not want to look me in the eye or if his eyes were just pointing in totally different directions.

He helped me get to a bus that would take me to Tunxi, where I could then take a taxi to the airport. The bus was pretty budget and three different people were trying to speak to me at once. One guy asked me what I thought of Chinese people and at the time all I could get out was "They are nice." It was a bad time to ask because I was so tired of Chinese tourists that were following flags, hocking up loogies, waking me up at 3 AM, peeing in pots near my bed and having no consideration for other people I had had quite enough, but I tried to remain cool.

I made it to the airport five hours early and went to the cafe there. They had a variety of fried rices on the menu so I figured it would be good to put some real food in my stomach, since all I had been eating was snack bars for two days. The woman said that their pork fried rice was good. I sat down and then heard a microwave in the kitchen. I figured it was something else, until my meal came out. It was one of those cup o' noodles type containers, only it had rice and a rather foul flavored pork sauce in it. I paid 30 kuai for this crap. Like the economic room for 200 kuai, it was yet another disappointment. I ate the parts that were just plain rice and then went to take a nap on some benches in the waiting area.

It was pretty nice being one of maybe three people in the airport, just relaxing for a few hours, until a huge tourist group came in. Of course they were on my flight. The entire time until we got on the flight, they were taking photos of each other in the airport. I am sure I made it into a large percent of those photos and I am sure I did not look happy. I was so tired and could barely keep my eyes open and the last thing I wanted to be surrounded by was a bunch of tourists.

The flight was mostly painless and then I made it home and to bed!