When our alarm clock rings, at 5 o’clock, we hear steps and voices outside. It’s time to put on the padded jackets we found in the room for the circumstance.  Fascinating is Huangshan with its hundreds of phantoms, going up and down in the night, their lighted pocket-lamps looking like walking stars. Hand in hand we find the place we chose yesterday. Soon all the terraces are invaded; some of the spectators are wrapped in a plaid. Murmuring voices in the air make the atmosphere captivating. As minutes flow away the tension rises. Suddenly it’s a complete stillness when a pale light appears at the horizon and let guess the contours of the phantasmagoric forms of the peaks. Then, during about half an hour, it’s a gallery of the most beautiful sceneries I have ever seen. A memorial impression forever! Suddenly, at the moment the sun appears, a triumphal clamour burst out and a round of applause breaks the charm!

     As at the end of a meeting, slowly the crowd is going away.

 

Going down. 

 

     Entering the immense restaurant of the hotel, no free places. A pleasant couple invites us at their table. Breakfast is not appetizing: fried peanuts, rice floating in liquid, brown beans, bread cooked on vapor, a biscuit. Even I don’t like it I swallow all of it because I need to be fit to face the 6.000 steps which will bring us back to our starting point.

     Our backpacks are light. Here we are setting out on ways very different from OUR mountains paths. They are traced in the stone, the steps engraved in the rock. It’s a luminous day, the exceptional visibility let us see Huangshan in whole its greatness.

     Wonderful is the blend of enormous rocks of grotesque shape and luxuriant vegetation. Profile around us majestic peaks with millennial pines in multiple attitudes, which gave them picturesque names such as “Pine of the Black Tiger”, “Siamese twins”…

    On our going down we have to pass the top of “Lotus Flower” climbing abrupt endless staircases. I fear to look up; the top of the way seems to be lost in the sky. There is fortunately a slope, which helps me to mount. At the top I lose breath in front of the splendid view. Innumerable cliffs erect at the horizon. To go down of the Lotus Flower is not easier on those precipitous rocky staircases. When I succeed to overcome the most problematic spot  I may, relaxed, admire the landscapes.

    Suddenly, far away, I discern Yupinglu (Jade Screen in the Heaven), where we hope to spend the night.  After a walk of six hours the sun is still high in the sky. Thank God we get the last free room.

In front of the refuge (alt. 1.160m.) backed against the rock, extends a terrace which overhangs the spectacular scenery of a cliff sea, extraterrestrial shaped. The place is fairy-like. I enjoy intensively this moment I dreamed of. Now I realize why poets find inspiration to meditate on nature visiting the magic Huangshan .

    In the evening we enjoy the sunset filtering through the millennial pine in front of the refuge. Its long branches, stretched to the visitors seem to say they are welcome. So they gave him the symbolic name: “Pine of Welcome”.

     We are halfway of the descent, that’s why we live Yupinglu early in the morning when a sea of snow-white clouds encloses Yupinglu. Some peaks emerge, then disappear in clouds. Fantastic picture! Today, I enjoy more calm the surrounding where blend vales, peaks, abysses, forests…. On a steep staircase arrive porters overloaded with supplies to provide Yupinglu. I back against the rock to let them go in order not to interrupt their rhythm. I feel guilty, such a labour to satisfy others pleasure. I forget my compassion when steps are so steep I wouldn’t be able to go along without a parapet, which protects me from the abysses on my left. At some places therapeutists help the pilgrims to put their poor legs in order, if necessary.

     About midday, tired but happy, we arrive at the end of one more unforgettable experience; in the afternoon we say adieu to Huangshan.

 

 

Comment       jeanette@sbb.co.yu