Huangshan

Located in the southern part of Anhui Province, the Yellow Mountains extend across - Shexian, Yixian, Taiping and Xiuning. The Huangshan mountain range comprises many peaks, 77 of which exceed 1,000m in altitude.

The three tallest peaks are Lotus Peak (Lian Hua Feng, 1,864 m, 30°07′N, 118°10′E), nearby Bright Summit Peak (Guang Ming Ding, 1,840 m) and Celestial Peak (Tian Du Feng, literally Capital of Heaven Peak, 1,829 m). The World Heritage Site covers a core area of 154 square kilometres and a buffer zone of 142 square kilometres.

The mountains were formed in the Mesozoic period, about 100 million years ago, when an ancient sea disappeared due to uplift. Later, in the Quaternary period, the landscape was shaped by the influence of glaciers. In many cases, stone pillar forests were formed.

The Yellow Mountains known as Yishan in the Qin Dynasty (221 -207 B.C.) got their present name in 747 A.D. (the 6th year of the Tianbao reign of the Tang Dynasty), when Li Bai (701 -762), the great Tang poet, wrote about them in these lines:

Thousands of feet high towers the Yellow Mountains
With its thirty-two magnificent peaks,
Blooming like golden lotus flowers.
Amidst red crags and rock columns.

The mountains are a body of granite, often with vertical joints. Erosion and fracture contributed to shape the rocks into huge columns giving rise to lofty peaks and deep ravines. When it is cloudy the pinnacles loom in mists as if they were visionary, while in sunshine they unfold in all their majesty and splendour.

from www.huangshanguide.com and Wikipedia

our sleeper train from shanghai to huangshan. 10.30pm - 10am! was surprisingly comfy except that the stupid train started blaring music and announcements from 6+am onwards! took a bus from the Huangshan train station till as far as the bus could go then started climbing.

it was green at first

but after taking the yu ping cable car up..... we stepped out into the clouds and were enveloped in whiteness.

steep descent into nothingness

一线天 - a narrow fault between two cliffs that's meant to look as though it leads straight to Heaven, reminds me of Stairway to Heaven. Steep and slippery... would have been scarier (ie. more fun :P) if not for being wedged in by people front and back.

valley between 光明顶 and 飞来石, when the mist finally cleared a bit and we caught our first glimpse of green and blue

our hotel - looks pretty decent from the outside. but we were staying in their dorms which were 8 to a room and had rickety wooden double-deckers, flat pillows, and musty smelling bedsheets and comforters which our tourguide said they only wash once in 10-20 days. even the train bed was better! but i didn't particularly care and slept warmly and soundly all night (not that there was much night) but the guys got grossed out because the other guys who were sharing their dorm went to sleep in their underwear without bathing after the climb up! so not knowing who had slept in their beds before them they didn't dare use the comforter. one of 'em ended up catching a chill.