China Trip: Yellow Mountain and Hongcun

When we left Xian we went to Shanghai to check in at our hostel and stay for one night.  I will talk more about what we did in Shanghai when I do a post just about that city.  Right now I want to tell you about the time that we spent in the Yellow Mountain/Hongcun area.

We took another long bus ride into the Yellow Mountain area to our hotel for the next two days.  The first room that we checked into had a few minor setbacks to it:  Matthew couldn't fit through the door without ducking and could not stand under the shower head without squatting!  Here is a funny picture of just how tall he is in this country.

We were lucky the place had "Western" toilets instead of squatter toilets but the ceiling of the whole room was only about 3 inches higher than Matthew's head.  We politely requested a different room even though the owner "Mr. Hu (who)" was just trying to make it easier on me so I would only have to climb one set of stairs instead of 3.  They gave us another room that had high ceilings and a pretty nice rain shower head.  

It was a pretty gloomy day outside but we took a walk around the town after sitting in the bus for such a long time.  There were a few small shops but mostly restaurants along the street.  We did find a nice bakery and a few produce stands where we picked up some snacks and food.  Finally we turned in early to get ready for our big hike at Yellow Mountain the next day.  

For the Yellow Mountain section of the tour we were to take a cable car up to beginning hiking point and then hike up and around the mountain to another cable car that would take us the rest of the way down.  We were expecting some really beautiful scenery from the top of the mountain but the furthest we could see in front of us the whole time was about 50 feet.  That was because there was just so much fog at that altitude.  The day was just gloomy and rainy all day long and the fog never let up. 

This is what the mountain looked like from the bottom.

We waited in a line for about an hour to get into a cable car and go up the mountain.

These are the best pictures that we got from the cable car going up.  The moisture on the outside of the car obstructed the pictures.

Here are some of the pictures that we got when we got up the mountain.

This pictures is basically how everything looked the entire 4 hour hike up and down stairs!  It was torture on me specifically.  We all thought that if there were some nice views to look out and see as we were doing all this hiking up and down stairs that it would be worth it.  BUT, since there were no views to be seen due to the fog, it was almost like a waste of an entire day and a lot of wasted energy.

Here are some of the steps.  We would climb up and up and keep going forever and then turn a corner and see more stairs going down.  It was up and down the entire time, hardly any flat surfaces.  I took a lot of breaks!

The 'love locks' sensation is also sweeping across China!

Isn't Matthew standing in front of such a beautiful overlook!???  Yeah this was supposed to be one of the most beautiful viewing spots on the mountain.  

That's me in the yellow poncho climbing Yellow Mountain.  :)

And here is another instance in China of the funneling system that we experienced all over the place.  We were leisurely walking at our own pace for most of the first part of the hike but then you had to get through this small gorge where it was basically single file and backed up the whole rest of the way.  There were actually people trying to push past you and cut in front of you in line at this point!  It was not fun. 

When we finally got out of the traffic jam this is what we got to go down!  It was super steep.  

Finally the cable car to go back down!!  The whole group was ready to go by this point.  We were exhausted and disappointed.  

But we did manage to get a few good shots going back down the mountain and out of the fog..

After all of that walking up and down steps I was in pain.  I was really feeling pregnant at this point in our trip.  We went back to the hotel and had a dinner cooked by Mr. Hu's wife.  Some of the group was going to go to the hot springs for that evening.  Matthew and I would have gone if not for two things:  it was super expensive and I would not be able to soak in the hot springs hardly at all because of the pregnancy.  I told Matthew to go without me but he insisted on staying with me and saving the money for something we could both do together.  Such a good husband!  Instead he took me down the road for a foot massage!  Granted I probably should have went without the traditional Chinese foot massage because man was she hard on my poor (already sore) legs, calves and feet.  I was probably even more worse off after the massage than if I had gone without it.  My calves were screaming at me!

By this time I was ready for bed and moving on with better parts of the trip!  The next morning we had the option of going to a park area where there were lots of waterfalls.  I knew that I would not be able to do a whole lot of walking around after the previous day but Matthew went on ahead while I hung out at the hotel.  Here are some of the pictures that Matthew got from that part of the trip. 

He got some really good shots and said that he really enjoyed this part of the trip in Hongcun.  

Looking back, I would have liked to skip this section of the trip altogether just because the weather did not make for good outdoor tours.  But, we still did it and still met some pretty cool people (Mr. Hu and his wife) and ate some really good food.  I would say that the food we had at Mr. Hu's restaurant was the best that we had in all of China!  It was like having a real Chinese home cooked meal.

Next up is the last portion of our trip: Shanghai!  

Thanks for reading.