Nov 2008

Huang Shan (yellow mountain) has the reputation of being the most picturesque mountain in China. The highlights, so we're told, are the sunrise and the sea of clouds that float between cliffs. Our good luck with the weather ran out when we reached Tunxi near the base of Huang Shan, so we made the best of it by going to the old Chinese villages around Tunxi. There are several old villages that have been preserved so they still look the way they did hundreds of years ago. The most popular one is Hongcun, where the movie “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” was filmed. However, we followed our driver's recommendation and went to Chengkan and Tangmo, two other old villages that are not as touristy (we liked Chengkan better). Walking around the empty narrow alleyways void of big tour groups, one really feels transported back in time. The misty rain only added to the melancholy feeling.

Of course the impact of the past 50 years can be seen here and there. The sign over this old woman's head says “Long Live Marxism and Leninism”

In another village, the owner of a building with intricate wood carvings were forced to scrape off the all the faces on the carvings during the Cultural Revolution because they represented old capitalist ideas. The only exception were faces of any servants, farmers, etc.... because they represented the workers.

The sky started clearing up so we headed up to the summit of Huang Shan. I always thought traditional Chinese landscape paintings are abstract expressions, but after Huang Shan I realized that they are actually very realistic and that the mountains in China really do look like that. The first day the heavy rain clouds were so thick we barely saw anything but the weather is so unpredictable that all of a sudden the fog would lift and then the sea of clouds would be before your eyes. The weather continued to improve during our 3 day stay so we got to see the many faces of Huang Shan, and even a decent sunrise:





As much as we dislike rain, Huang Shan is at its best right after it rains in order to get the clouds.

There are no roads for any vehicles with wheels, motorized or not at the summit. Everything that's used (food, bed linen, water, etc.) are all carried up from the bottom of the mountain by the local workers.... a 3+ hour hike uphill!

Our hike was not anywhere near as tough as the workers' since the cable car took us most of the way up, but we did have to carry a pretty heavy load to our hotel. All because we didn't heed the advice of the hotel staff in Tunxi who told us to leave most of our luggage with them. Next time we will definitely remember to bring as little as possible up! Ashok's going down in this picture, but we had an equal (or more) number of steps up... and by the way, I had my share of heavy bags as well:

One last story of a very interesting encounter: On one of our hikes, Ashok saw an old man doing some sketches who looked interesting so we approached him to ask to take his picture. It turns out he's an art professor at an university in JianXi and comes every year at the invitation of one of the hotels to paint for them. After talking for a while, he asked if Ashok would sit for a portrait for him because he doesn't normally get a chance to do portraits of foreigners. How funny is that! Usually it's Ashok that's doing the asking. Of course we had to oblige... and that's how Ashok got his first portrait.

And so ended our tour of China. On to Southeast Asia with Bangkok as our first stop.

After almost a month of brown, dusty, deserty landscape, it's nice to finally see trees and green landscape. Chengdu was a pleasant surprise - cleaner and a lot more modern than the cities we've been seeing (besides Beijing).

Sichuan cuisine is also our favorite of all the different types of Chinese foods, yet another reason we were excited to be there. The food definitely did not disappoint. A stroll around the various food stalls around Wen Shuo Temple proved to be very rewarding for our stomach. The food is spicy, but in a way that one can still taste all the flavors as opposed to just being so hot it obliterates everything else. One of the best is the dumpling in hot chili oil... here's it's more soupy and flavorful than what you get in the US. There's not peanut butter in the sauce either... not sure why restaurants in NY think it's necessary to add it. Unfortunately Ashok was still recovering from Jiayuguan so we had to limit what we ate.

The Giant Pandas are from Sichuan so of course we paid a visit to the Panda Research Center. We got there early to see them eat breakfast. Apparently after that they pretty much just go back to sleep. Not a bad life. I know they can get mean but they just look so innocent & cuddly!

The cutest things, though, were the baby Pandas. All the newborns are put into the nursery since they're still developing their senses and cannot do much, and when the workers plop them down into the playpen they just lay there and wiggle around looking just like the soft, plush stuffed animals you can buy (sorry photos were not allowed inside).

The other thing to do is to have tea in a tea house and people watch. It was drizzling the day we went to the park so there weren't too may people to watch. However, we did see this interesting activity in the park:

This guy is getting his ears cleaned by one of the professional ear cleaners that walk around the park, while having tea and snacks, for less than $1.50! We were tempted, but didn't end up trying it.

It would've been nice to rest up in Chengdu for a few days but we had already booked tickets for Huang Shan so off we went after only a short stay.