After being surrounded by pollution， cars， un- bearable heat and noise for several weeks in a big city like Shanghai； you might need to go somewhere peaceful with fresh air. Huangshan， which is situated in South Anhui Province in East China， can provide you with exactly those things and that was mainly why we as tourists choose to go there.

The city Huangshan is also known as The Yellow Mountains and is linked to Shanghai both by airplane， rail and bus. The city can also be visited through cities such as Hangzhou and Wuhu. As a foreigner it is quite difficult to book tickets for a trip to the Yellow Mountains though. Since most of the websites about the place and how to get there are in Chinese we found it hard to arrange the trip by ourselves. Luckily we had some Chinese friends， and the tickets for our adventure were therefore booked with help from them. As a foreigner you might not be that fluent in Chinese and that is also why it will be great and easier to book a trip to Yellow Mountains if you have somebody who can help you to book the tickets.

Getting there

When you first have the departure tickets for the trips it is quite easy to go there. After a six-hour bus ride from Shanghai South Railway Station we arrived in Huangshan. From there it became quite a mystery on how to get to the top of the mountains but fortunately for us the people in the city were eager and pleased to help us when we first arrived. In general it seems like that they know that foreigners might be confused when first arriving and even though it also is about them making money， they will help you and tell you how to get to the Mountains from the bus station in Huangshan.

Apparently there are several ways you can choose when going to the top of the mountain. If you are fit and a serious hiker who likes to explore the nature on the way you can hike your way up to top of The Yellow Mountains. But if you are a bit lazy， your bag is too heavy or if you just want to take the easy way out you can always take a bus to a certain point of the mountain and then take a cable car from there. That is exactly what we did and the view from the cable car was amazing as well. But of course we couldn’t skip the hiking part completely and after the cable ride we had to hike for about three hours to reach our hotel on top of the mountain. The three hours of hiking of course included us taking breaks， lots of pictures and enjoying the stunning views from the different scenic areas.

Rest your feet

Depending on what you are looking for there is a hotel for anyone in Huangshan. But if you want to stay on top of the mountain it will be more expensive than staying down in the actual city. The hotel we stayed at on the top of the mountain was divided in two. One part of the hotel was more luxurious whereas the other part was pretty basic. As students we couldn’t afford to stay in the luxurious part of the hotel so we chose to stay in dorms fitting up to six people. Sharing a room in a dorm with others made the experience even richer. You get to interact with other people and get to know their culture better. The first day we slept there we met a Chinese woman who taught us some things about the Chinese culture and the area. She even made us some of the Chinese food she had brought for herself. At the top of the mountain there isn’t much to do after it gets dark. That is why we brought different card games and kept ourselves entertained after the dark.

Before the trip to The Yellow Mountains we were warned about the overpriced food and drinks on top of the mountains so we made sure that we had lots of food and drinks with us when going there. And surely the warnings were true. A bottle of water costs 15 yuan and a chocolate-bar， which only costs 3 yuan in the ordinary supermarkets， costs 25 yuan. You have the possibility to dine at a restaurant but that is of course expensive as well. So unless you don’t mind spending a lot of money on the mountain we would advice you to bring your own food and snacks when visiting the Yellow Mountains.

Count the steps

There are a lot of beautiful scenic spots in the mountains but if you want to see them you need to be willing to hike and walk a lot of steps. We hiked for about five hours and managed to see a lot of different and beautiful scenic areas. One of the scenic spots that we visited was the West Grand Canyon. The climb to the West Grand Canyon was exhaust-ing but the view and sight was breathtaking. To be able to hike around and find the dif-ferent scenic spots you want to visit it is important to have a full stomach and to be hydrated. A good bag-back， which should not be too heavy， is essential when climbing the mountain. Some good walking shoes would do wonders as well. The climate in the mountain might not be as you are used to in other parts of China. Because of the altitude it can get really cold and windy and depending on the time unfortunately it can be cloudy as well. It is therefore a good idea to bring a light sweater or cardigan with you just in case it gets a bit cold.

Chasing the sunrise

A lot of people visit the Yellow Mountains to catch the stunning view of the sunrise from the top of the mountains. You can hear the alarms from every room in the hotel at about 4am. It is almost certain that most people will sacrifice their sweet sleep in order to have a chance to see the sunrise. That is exactly what we did and our roommates were going to get up to see the sunrise as well so it wasn’t a problem even though we shared a room with others. When we woke up we just followed a group of people who wanted to see the sunrise as well. After hiking for 20 minutes with one eye open and almost falling a sleep again we eventually got to the top where we were supposed to see the sunrise. Because we followed a group of people the place was unfortunately too crowded and it was too cloudy to catch a sight of the sunrise. We would recommend you to bring a flashlight and not to follow anyone but find your own quite place instead. If you are lucky you can enjoy the sunrise - if not you still have a quite and peaceful moment you can enjoy. And even if you can’t really catch the sunrise you’ve still reached the mountain， and just the view from there is worth it all.