Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain)

After leaving the delightful Hangzhou with its West Lake, hills, temples and greenery we took a bus 250 km WSW to Tangkou at the base of Huang Shan. It's not actually one mountain; there are 36 peaks in an area of many square km.

Which Kitty has got the cream?

 If you have 3 days you can hike up, stay at one of the hotels at the top and hike down a different way. We only had a day so we took a cable car up, and a different one down. Even at 8 am we had to queue for about an hour. Thousands of people went up today and it is much more crowded on weekends. The Chinese tour groups are a pain as the leader has a mike and LOUD speaker; fortunately once you get a couple of km away from the cable car top you leave them behind and have a much more pleasant experience.

We covered a lot of the sights and are now recovering with warm baths and rest.  The names on Huang Shan are quaint e.g. Beginning to Believe Peak, Monkey Gazing at the Sea, Two Immortals Playing Chess, Cloud Dispersing Pavilion.

Interestingly enough we have barely seen other Western tourists anywhere on our trip so far except at the hotels and the night shows we've been to. Heaven knows where they are hiding.