黄山: "Yellow Mountain" - China's granite beauty

I am back from Guilin already (last night) and after a more relaxing day in Hefei (went to see Grandparents' new highrise apartment, the huge French supermarket next door that sells more fresh produce and animals than you can imagine, and the house I grew up in which is smaller than a quarter of the size of my apartment now), I have realized that I have a lotta catching up to do blogwise.

So here goes my attempt at Huangshan.
This is the main gate reading Huangshan on top, which translates to "yellow mountain." It is really a series of mountains in a range. We took a cable car in the morning to one peak, called White Goose Peak. From the ride alone you could already see the "sea of fog" that awards Huangshan its fame.At the top of White Goose, the stretch of clouds and fog look like the stretch of clouds and fog look like an ocean of cotton balls that were more comfortable than any bed... except for the thousands of feet you'd tumble if you were to try.Particular to the mountain range are Huangshan pine trees, which grow only on the steep slopes of the mountains fully upright and with dispersed branches-- a quite oriental look if I may say. Along the concrete steps which break the foliage of these pines you encounter these amazing workers who carry bags of concrete on bamboo shoots for further building, stopping every few steps for respite from the weight; I can't imagine how heavy those bags are. Their calves are huge! Chinese work ethic will never cease to amaze me sometimes.
Chinese culture incessantly necessitates poetic names (unfortunately the poetic aspect is lost in translation) for odd-looking things-- Huangshan in particular has names for endless pine trees or stones. Here is "Monkey Guarding the Sea of Fog":
And this particular stone is humongous, but the way the weathering of the mountains have coincidentally shaped it, it looks like some god had set it atop this peak. "Flying-over Stone":

Can you see the ants that are really people at the rock?Engraved on this giant rock are letters which bring good luck if you touch them and leave some money....
See, it's huge when I hug it!

Everywhere else, the sea of fog is just incredible. You can see one mountainscape one second, and a blink later, those peaks have disappeared under the waves and new ones have appeared. The height of where we stood was always disguised by the sea, as we were really almost always a thousand meters (more than 3000 feet) above sea level-- it was as if we were in a different world where the ground became the clouds.
Still at the top, peering downwards scared my mom to death (and to screaming at me) as I like to lean over the rails to see what's below: steep, steep rocks for a terrible death if you tumbled!
The climb at times was a bit slippery (especially on the second day which was completely rainy) and steep and full of narrow paths guarded by rock walls. (But of course, that makes it fun.)

Anyhow, I realize this entry is a bit brief since I'm trying to catch up (and also pack for Shenzhen/Hong Kong simultaneously) but the pictures speak for themselves (except I really, really wish I had a big ole expensive camera to capture the beauty of Huangshan). We spent two days hiking around in the mountains... although every picture in that album might look the same to you, the aeshetic appeal never diluted with each new scene...

I will write about our trip to Guilin when I get a chance (if not, check here for pictures).... :) Otherwise, I leave for Shenzhen tomorrow morning, Hong Kong for two days after that, back to Hefei for a day, and then Bangkok and Phuket!