Day 359: The Rising Sun

Huangshan – Huangshanshi, China

A friend told me that it’s impossible  to take a photo without a person in it in China. China is simply too populated. I learnt this morning how bad the extent of that statement.

Our tour group woke up at 4am to catch the sunrise. I got to the spot to find hundreds if not thousand of others already stationed themselves all over the cliffs. I did not see the sunrise. I saw endless silhouetted heads instead. Lovely!

We visited a few major sights of Huangshan:

• Monkey overlooking the sea
• Plant growing on the pen tip
• Old man fishing
• Camels

To climb down Huangshan, I decided to skip the funicular, save some money and get some workout. Along the way down, I saw a bunch of couriers walking up the staircases huffing, puffing, sweating and looking terribly miserable. Most of these folks are middle aged men. I find the sight heartbreaking. I think each of them are carrying some 20-30 kilos (if not more) and they get paid around RMB 100 (USD 15) a trip. What’s a trip? Around 10km uphill staircases. Life is tough.

I arrived at the bottom of Huangshan with aching feet. The group were then taken to a “free” foot massage where they tried to sell us snake oil. I learnt to not mind these commercial stops in tours. At least I got my free tea, free massage, free food tasting, etc.

For the night, I was placed in a designer hotel with a room all to myself. This was the most luxurious place i’ve stayed at for the whole year. It was nice. It was almost a drag to venture out to the old street of Huangshanshi. I did go albeit reluctantly. Watching TV and lazying around in my private room were tempting.