China was off to a great start in Guilin and Yangshuo. This continued into our next destinations as well. Nick and I had a long travel day with our first train being 6 hours to Shangrao. The train passed mountains, forests, towns, and flooded fields. The fields even had some water buffalos. One of the mountains had tiny houses, the size of a doll house, placed throughout the trees on one side. It was very cute. After a tight layover we made our last train which was 1 hour to get to Huangshan.

In Huangshan we stayed in an old inn that was right on the Tunxi Old Street. Our room had wooden floors, walls, bed frame, and window framing. It smelled amazing. The view from our balcony was great during the day time; we could watch the vendors on the street. It was less great at night due to the noise, but worth it for the experience. The street had lanterns, large cobble stones, and many small shops. The inn we stayed at had a resident dog who was afraid of Nick (much to his disappointment) and a grey crusty cat who was always asleep on the carpet.

Our first full day we did a day trip to two nearby villages. It was raining nearly all day, which meant the villages were photogenic and we believed it made them less busy. The first village was Hongcun. This one was the largest and had a few highlight spots including South Lake, Moon Pond, and Chengzhi Hall.

We walked all the way around South Lake and took in the beautiful reflections of the village. There was also a stone bridge and walkway that cut across the lake. This was usually full of people so we opted to skip walking there. The village was full of white buildings with black tiled roofs, lanterns, and food stalls.

Moon Pond was a large pond in the middle of the village with buildings close to all sides and a view of the mountain to one side. It also had Chengzhi Hall nearby, which was an older building. We went inside and followed the arrows around to the different open air rooms. Hongcun was beautiful but incredibly busy.

Our next village was Xidi. We both agreed it was our favorite. This was one similar to Hongcun, with many white houses and black tiled roofs. Here the surrounding mountains were more prominent. This village was much less busy than the first so we enjoyed slowly exploring down each little alley and street.

Nick saw a lady making bread so he ordered one. We watched as the woman rolled out dough, filled it with noodles, lettuce, pickled mystery vegetables, and spices. She rolled this into a ball, then flattened it very thin. We couldn’t believe it wasn’t ripping. Then when she fried it she opened a small hole and filled it with a beaten egg. We split this and it was so yummy. The outside was crispy and the inside was like a quiche.

Just like Hongcun we went into many older buildings that were kept maintained. In addition, this village had a walkway around the outside. We did this, too, for a view of the village with the rice fields in front. Lastly we hiked the short trail to the higher viewpoint. Here we could see the village nestled in the valley with mountains and forest surrounding on all sides. It was stunning.

Back in Huangshan we spent time walking the old street and along the waterfront. One of the funnier fails we had when ordering food happened here too. Our go to spot on the old street had two identical photos of meatballs. We ordered meatballs and after about 1 hour these slimy, definitely-not-meat-balls, came out. Quickly taking out my phone and translating the text under the photos the mistake became clear. One photo was meatballs and one was arrowroot dumplings. The arrowroot dumplings had the consistency of very thick jello, with chunks of root, and the flavor of a ramen packet. They were not for me.

Luckily there was some comedic relief in the form of a small bird that flew into the restaurant and immediately took a liking to Nick. It hung out on his finger, his back and his head. He loved seeing if Nick had any dead skin on his neck and seemed unbothered by us, maybe even slightly annoyed we had no treats for him. Nick had to encourage it to leave after it made it clear it was not going to be leaving his head voluntarily. We tried the special at the same restaurant on another day, mandarin fish, and it was delicious.

One of our last days in the area we did a day trip to the yellow mountains. This started with a shuttle bus to the Yungu cablecar where we rode up the mountain. We hiked past Immortal Pointing the Way, White Goose Ridge, Harp Pine, Black Tiger Pine, and two hotels. Our map didn’t match all the names on the park signs but everything seemed to be about in the spot we thought it would be. The two hotels were the Beihai and the Xihai hotels. After these we did an easy short hike that had beautiful views to Purple Cloud Peak. We had varying levels of visibility throughout the day.

After the Purple Cloud Peak we did the West Sea Grand Canyon route. The route was incredibly scenic. The clouds and mist covered some parts of the mountains, but not all of them. There were stone steps and walkways all along the sides of cliffs, trees growing on the sides, too, and many sharp peaks. The scenery was spectacular in every direction. There were many tour groups when we were there, though, so we did have to try and weave through them occasionally so we didn’t get stuck behind them.

I enjoyed a popsicle with mountain details engraved that tasted like a mango milkshake. As we continued along the path we came across several monkeys. They were so fluffy and big, they reminded me of yetis. The Chinese really seemed completely unbothered by the monkeys and didn’t take photos of them. However, when there was a squirrel, complete different story. There would be crowds forming around one squirrel in a tree for photos and videos.

The 1st and 2nd Ring areas of the West Sea Grand Canyon route were several kilometers of going mostly down stairs. Eventually we made it to the monorail station and took this to the third hotel of the day, Tianhai Hotel, where we enjoyed some noodles with vegetables and peach teas for lunch. The clouds were rolling in more and more and getting much darker. I was concerned that the storms on the forecast were perhaps going to make the rest of our afternoon very wet. We hurried to the Bright Top viewpoint just incase. The view was mostly blocked by clouds so it was hard to tell if it was worth it getting up there or not.

The remainder of our hiking from the hotel we did the Western Route to get back down. One of the rest spots we sat at had more of the mountain designed popsicles. I tried the milk flavor and Nick tried the blue algae salted cheese one. Nick’s was the best one, it tasted like a cheesecake.

Unfortunately Lotus Peak was closed for hikers when we were there. We did, however, get to see the Greeting-Guest Pine. It was super crowded but the view was nice. We felt like we saw just as cool of pine trees and mountains along our hike in other areas, too, though.

The Yuping cablecar back down was nice and got us to the Ciguang Pavilion shuttle station. It was then a short shuttle back to the ticket office a short drive home. The one thing that was unexpected in the park was all the extra fees. Every cablecar and every shuttle cost extra on top of the entry tickets, which was not the case for other parks we visited. Back in town Nick let me get pizza for dinner. The emotional support pizza followed by emotional support candied fruits was a must have after our fail of arrowroot dumplings. Overall we loved Huangshan and were happy to have had a few days there to explore the area.