This is my third blog post on my amazing China trip. The next leg comprises of adventures in Shanghai and Yellow Mountain. After breath-taking fun on the Great Wall of China and checking out the historical town of Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors; little did I know what I was in for!
I am tired after a week of adventures so far, check out my first two entries of the Great Wall and Xi'an. With another long haul train ride ahead of 16 hours, I knew I wasn't going to get much sleep.
I arrive in the big city of Shanghai heavily sleep deprived. I leave my luggage at the accommodation and head out to discover the city with my intrepid tour group. We head out for a walking tour to the bund, old shanghai laneways and the city central park.
I end up walking almost 20 kms that day and we head to the highest point in Shanghai for the best views. The Shanghai World Financial Center had spectacular views (top photo and below). I crash hard that night as I am knackered and am eager to sleep in a proper bed.
The next day, I get on a bus to Huangshan where Yellow Mountain is located. The squat toilets by now are KILLING me and I feel really uncomfortable on the pit stops there. It's raining hard as the 6 hour bus ride approaches the guest house.
Jane, our tour leader tells us that it's often raining in this region however the weather forecast is that it will clear so we will get spectacular views tomorrow. We walk around in the rain in this one street town.
The next day we walk to the bus stop and get a 30 mins bus ride to the base of yellow mountain. Jane talks about how we catch a ride up of about 10kms in a cable car and then
we have a few different options of climbing this mountain, about 20kms, 10kms and what not. I am knackered but I'm eager to check out Yellow Mountain.
The cable car up paints a very rainy and cloudy day.
As I start walking the initial path, the sun comes out and there are some SPECTACULAR VIEWS as I climb up the millions of stairs on yellow mountain. The clouds make me feel like I'm floating in heaven (below).
The clouds clear and I get to see the below mountain structures. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm physically drained and tired but I venture on. I see some of the rich locals who pay other people to carry them around on a make-shift throne up and down the mountain for kms at a time.
I feel sad for these old men who have the job of carrying around other people or big sacks of materials for the hotel on the mountain. There's no lift big enough for the materials so they end up hiking up and down 20-40kms on the mountain.
After all those stairs up, I walk down and I am VERY tired. A bunch of the group agree to head to the hot springs nearby. I can't wait.
As we walk towards the hot springs, we see gorgeous waterfalls that flow through.
The hot springs are lovely. There's several hot springs and they are flavoured! The water is about 40 degrees in most hot springs and I enjoy the vitamin c hot springs. I like the wine one as well. It's so relaxing and a perfect few hours after a BIG hike up and down yellow mountain. OHH yeah.
My muscles are relaxing in the hot springs.
Well that's all for now. Stay tuned for part 4 of my China trip. I loved Yellow Mountain and surprisingly, this becomes the highlight of the trip so far. WOW. What amazing views.
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