15 to 18th May - HuangShan, Hangzhou, Wuzhen

We came back from Huangshan on Sunday night. It was raining all the way from WuZhen to Shanghai.

It all started with HZ & family wanting to go Huangshan for a couple of days before staying in Shanghai. While checking the details for them, Sean asked why dun I go with them for the 4 days. So that's how I tagged along.

Before this, my idea of these places like HS, HZ, WZ was that they are ulu, dirty toilets, food issue etc. But this trip changed my mind. Of cos, there are still alot of places with dirty toilets,food but there are choices for the tourists and the local govt also did some improvement works for the foreign tourists.

Anyway, we took a flight from Pudong to Huangshan (Tunxi) in a small plane. Always heard that the domestic flight in China is very choppy due to the tubulences but this was a good and smooth flight. Stayed one night in Tunxi.

Next morning, we took the van to Huangshan. It was a scenic route. This is the view along the cable car route to go up HS. Understand from the guide that its not very often we get to see such clear view. Most of the year, its cloudy and foggy. We have been very fortunate that weekend.

This is the view of the station on top of HS. Notice that there are no other buildings around this station. All the while, I thot that the hotels are near to the station but nooo.... They are at least 40 minutes away by foot! And all the paths comes with staircases! Lots of them.

Me at the cable car station.

Scenery along the path to hotel.

HZ's niece and nephew seating on a cantilevered bench. Its a long way down if this chair gives way.

These are some of the staircases we have to take to the hotel.

There are actually a number of famous pine trees in HS. They have become tourist spots and this is one of them. Does this pine tree looks like a dragon?

This is called Lian Li Song. It grows from one root but split into two trunks. Just like "lovers link each other". That's what the signage says. Below this tree, there are alot of locks where couples locked their locks along the metal chains and then throw the keys down the valley.

Along the route to the hotel, there are alot of porters carrying things up to the hotels. This load weighs about 140jin or 70kg. They carry stuff like laundry, food, construction materials etc. They can be part of the Olympic team for the weight lifting segment for China. Really take my hat off them.

This is the pine tree lined path to the hotel. After walking for more than 1 hr, we finally reached the hotel in time for lunch. More walking after lunch.


Had an 11 course lunch which the service staff just continue plying our table with all the dishes at one go. Some of the dishes are quite nice.. :) And I actually brought along two cup noodles for this trip.

More walking after lunch.

This is a little ledge with the valley hundreds of meters below. My legs were turning a little jelly trying to walk towards the edge. See all the locks along the chain barricade? Those are placed by couples and after locking it here, the key is thrown into the valley.

This is another staircase. Very steep. Was considering whether to continue but in the end, why not, since we came all the way here oredy.

After the steep staircase, we came to the narrow passageway. The air was very cool inside this dug out mountain tunnel.

More mountains, valleys, pine trees. And staircases!!

Ok, this is the last straw. I didn't want to go down this staircase cos it's so steep and we have been walking for hours. So we left some of them behind and walked back in the direction of our hotel. Without having to follow the guide, we actually took a slower pace to view and admire the scenery.

Heard from the guide that all these paths were built a few years ago (after Yr 2000). Its amazing how most of these these footpaths are built cantilevered from the mountain side. There I am, holding on to the railing and trying not to look down to the valley below. Legs turning a little jelly. argh...

Next morning, we woke up at 4+ to catch the sunrise. There were oredy alot of ppl up the hill behind our hotel occupying the prime spots. The view was beautiful but fleeting.

After breakfast, more walking back to the cable car station. We took another route. More staircases.

After coming down from HS, we drove to this village called "Hong Cun". Very nice village. Can't view my photos cos dunno what happen to the photo format. Alot of arts students actually came here to practice their drawing.

The water supply of the village comes from the mountain and is distributed by small canals within the village. One interesting thing is that they designed the flow of the canal to be similar to the layout of the cow's intestines.

We bought some "shao bin" from the village. Taste good. Bought some but its not as nice anymore.

That night, the tour guide brought us to a local restuarant in Tunxi. Its has an interesting restaurant concept. They display all their food at the counter downstairs for us to look and choose by their individual number. The good thing is, this place is clean and cheap. This is the first time I'd tasted such good "yun tun", that we ordered another bowl. I will loved to come back to this restuarant again. We stayed for the night in Tunxi.

Sunday morning, we departed early for Hangzhou and Wuzhen.

This is Hangzhou. Quite warm as it is closed to noon time. Somewhere inside Xi Hu, the driver called me. He said."Did you see the Oympic torch?". "Its outside Xi Hu, along the main road". No wonder, there are some many banners and ppl around that road. What a pity as we were already at the lake area!!

After leaving Hangzhou, we went to Wuzhen. Looks like a deserted town. Very suitable for filming. There is a modern hotel within this town. Wonder if there are ppl staying there cos this place would be so quiet at night. We would need abt 3 hrs to fully cover this whole area but we have only 1.5hr left. Anyway, it started to rain slightly and got heavier towards the end of 1.5hr.

From Wuzhen, we drove non-stop to Shanghai and by the time we had dinner, it was 9+.

Next day, with nothing to do since I need to rest after all the walking, I did brownie with the recipe Li gave to me. But it tasted like choc cake. Anyway, everyone finished it for me. :)