The Mountaintop

When my alarm went off at 3:30am, the immediate thought that went through my mind was Crap! This sunrise had better be worth it! Right now, staying in bed sounded like the best option I could think of.

I got dressed, trying not to wake my roommates. They’d come back shortly after I’d showered last night and stayed up for a few hours watching game shows. Since they didn’t speak a word of English we didn’t interact much. I’d actually slept through most of the commotion they made in the night, and they fell asleep at some point without turning off the TV or lights.

When I got outside, it was really dark. I could hear voices out in the woods cackling and whispering, but I couldn’t see anyone. With the fog still blowing around, it was officially really creepy in a really awesome kind of way. I walked out from under the canopy and discovered it was sprinkling a little.

Crud! I realized I had left my umbrella in the Sherpa room last night when I’d transferred. Bummer.

I debated going inside to get my rain gear, but it wasn’t really raining hard enough to warrant that. And I wanted to get a good view on the peak so I decided to head out.

Lion’s Peak had won my vote for the morning Sunrise. It seemed to be the highest point I’d been at so far, and I knew I could get back there in the dark. At first I was using my cell phone for light, but as I got deeper in the woods, I shut it off so my eyes could adjust to the dark. It was really eerie walking alone in the night, but the mysterious ambiance of the mountain was even more incredible now than it had been in the day.

As I got up higher, I looked around to the other peaks. Freckles of flashlights flickered in the trees showing the trails of people climbing to the tops. When I got to the top of Lion’s Peak, it was already really crowded. According to my map, the rock at the top is called “sitting monkey”…but I’m not really seeing where that name comes from.

Looking out east, the sky was still dark. Over the next few minutes, light began to leak through the clouds and illuminate the mist. The silhouette of Beginning to Believe Peak came into view. More people kept showing up and pushing to get a glimpse of the rising the sun. I’d found a particular rock to stand on and once I got my balance, I staked my claim.

One family stood in front of me. The little boy who seemed to be about four or so sat on his father’s shoulders, playing with his hair and clinging tightly to his chin. The daughter meanwhile played with the camera taking pictures of every rock, tree, and person she saw.

There were definitely some hardcore photographers up there. They set up their cameras on tri-pods and covered them with plastic bags as protection from the rain. When people showed up with umbrellas, they would block the view and the photographers would have to reset to get their perfect frame set up all over again.

Gradually, the fog started to develop a pink hue. The mist had a silver glow about it and entire sky took on a bright and ethereal look. I put on my headphones to drown out the chaotic noise of people talking. When I hit shuffle on my “Travel” playlist, it immediately started playing Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up.” As the bagpipes played and he belted out the line, “you raise me up, so I can stand on mountains” the sunlight burst through the clouds and the whole horizon glowed bright and brilliant. It wasn’t the most colorful sunrise I’ve seen, but it did have a celestial look about it that was absolutely amazing.

Everyone cheered as they headed down off the mountain. I stayed behind and had a few people take pictures of me. One man pointed across the valley to a boulder which I realized…looked like a money sitting on a rock. Now I get it! I thought.

As I walked back to the hotel I felt awake and re-energized. I decided I would hike as far as I could by noon and then head to the Western Cable Car. That would give me my best bet of catching the 4:10 bus back to Shanghai…which would allow me to sleep in my own bed tonight. It did mean I wouldn’t see the caves, but I thought I could fit in just about everything else.

I packed up my stuff and headed out. As I walked through the halls, I saw that the door to my original room was open. This will be awkward, I thought. I walked up and tapped on the door frame. One of the Sherpa guys saw me and smiled. Instinctively, he walked over and grabbed my umbrella and handed it to me.

“Thank you,” I said. It was a cheap umbrella, but it was still nice to have as a backup.

Checking out with the concierge, I started walking back over towards the Cloud Dispelling Pavilion. On my way, I noticed a sign I hadn’t seen yesterday when I was following the police officer. It pointed up a staircase off to the side and said “to Purple Peak.”

Purple peak wasn’t on my map, but something about this climb was just beckoning me, so I headed up. It turned out to be the steepest set of stairs I had climbed so far, but the view at the top was breathtaking. In my head I joked it’s hard enough to breath up here without having your breath stolen by the beautiful scenery. But it was true. I could see a dam in the distance, as well as the south part of the North Sea (which is the name for the valley off the northern face of the mountain—called such because the mountain peaks that break through the clouds look like cresting waves on the sea.)

As I looked around at the crazy scenery—the jagged cliffs, the misty sky, the exotic trees and flowers—I thought to myself, who knew that hiking in the Jungle was exactly what I needed to clear my head. This trip really had been a blessing but I have to admit, it came about so ironically. When I left for China, I had never heard of Huangshan. The only reason I read about Huangshan was because I’d gotten sick after eating those berries John brought into work. The only reason I ever thought about going here was because I thought I’d be traveling with Luke and a hike sounded like an exciting idea…but really, had I not eaten that fruit and gone home sick that day from work, I probably never would have found this place in my book…the whole thing probably never would have come together…and yet it has absolutely been a highlight of my time in China so far.

 

The hike was steep going down. At the bottom, I ducked into another restaurant for their breakfast buffet. This one was only 68RMB, although none of the food was particularly good. I tried a little bit of everything, but wound up going back to stash up on rolls and scrambled eggs (which had some kind of red pepper cooked into them.) Again, it really wasn’t enough food for the amount of exercise I was doing, but it would have to work for now.

Outside, I bought two water bottles form one of the vendors. Checking my watch, I realized I had 4 and ½ hours until I needed to head for the cable car. Not wanting to waste anytime, I set off to finish my adventure.