Yellow Mountain (called Huang-Shan in Chinese) is the first mountain I hiked in China. It was a spontaneous trip for me as I didn’t do much research. I started my journey from Jiaxing city in China. From there, I took a train to Hangzhou station, then took a bus to Hangzhou west bus station. From Hangzhou bus station, I took a bus to the HuangShan Tangkou, where I spent the night around there before I hiked the mountains the day after.

I stayed at a local youth hostel there and sent some postcards to my friends back home. The hostel was nice but at that time, it was pretty lonely, perhaps because it was wintertime.

It was time for a journey! I woke up at around 5 AM and took a walk to another bus station nearby which would take me to the Huangshan scenic spot. If you want to see sunrise there, you can spend the night at the hotel very close to the scenic spot. Since I didn’t prepare for this trip and since its foggy every morning during the winter, I didn’t feel like I needed to race to the sunrise.

The rest of the story is the amazing, mystical and magnificent views of Huangshan / Yellow mountains. The scenic area is pretty big and if you want to explore the whole area, I think you need at least 2 full days to explore. However there are cable cars which could take you up and down in several areas and there are some decent hotels inside the scenic area, so it all depends on how you want to spend your time here.

I spent a whole day here from morning until noon. I hiked the mountain by feet, but didn’t have enough time to explore all areas. Basically, the hike climbs thousands of stairs and it is tiring. If you go here during winter like me, you may see some blue skies and you will encounter many foggy areas. When the wind blows, it’ll be pretty cold and wet because of the high moisture in the air. For me, the fogs makes the mountain more mystical.

There many attraction spots on the mountain; maybe the most famous one is “the Greeting Guest Pine” – a pine tree standing on the edge. On the backdrop of the tree is a wall of stones with Chinese calligraphy on it. If you continue your journey, you will be also meet the opposite pine, “the Farewell Pine.” So interesting!

The highest spot on the mountain is called “Lotus Peak” which is about 1836 m. This is the best spot to witness the sea of clouds. Almost every view here is great view. Huangshan is now included as a world heritage site by UNESCO. It is considered as one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in China. Since I haven’t fully explored it yet, I would gladly visit again if there’s any chance, especially during another season maybe.