Huangshan Mountains

Every Chinese is avid to climb the legendary Huangshan Mountains. Countless inscriptions on rocks or stone steles by ancient poets and digital pictures of the mountain scenery are testimony of the obsession Huangshan Mountains has overwhelmed over Chinese people. What makes Huangshan a travel pilgrim destination is not its height (1,800 meters highest in absolute elevation), nor for its religious reason but its peculiar scenery that fits into oriental tastes. Crags rise up from verdant thickets of woods and bamboo forest, hung in mist or snowflakes in winter and portrayed in thousands of Chinese paintings. Although there are slate-paved stairs from mountain foot to peaks it would kill your legs if you plan to climb up and head down by foot along endless stairs. However there is now a cable car carrying you up and down. Hotels and guesthouses are available on the midway to the top. One of main goals of the pilgrimage of Chinese tourists is to greet the moment of daybreak and a fantastic place for sunrise is the aptly named Seeing is Believing Peak. Swarms of weltering clouds in most time of a year hang around the mountains forming a magnificent cloudscape. But only steep rocks and cloud cannot lead to a perfect picture in front of Chinese camera. Here comes aged pine trees wriggled out of crevices of stones in grotesque figures and it seems quite appealing standing in this sacred Huangshan. Yet what drives tourists here is not only the mountain itself but also some villages close to the mountain. Hongcun village is one of them, famous for its well-reserved old architecture and interesting foregone tales behind.