Grey Air, Yellow Mountains
Well, that chap in the room at Shanghai was correct. Hefei (pronounced hoo-fey) has nothing going for it. The town is the Chinese equivalent of Croydon but with more pollution and the now standard staring yokels. It was one of the most unpleasant places I have ever spent on earth. The only thing that made it bearable was the Holiday Inn hotel there. This was able to provide me with a protective bubble to stay in, not to mention hot water, decent toilets and clean bed linen. The final thing was the Indian restaurant on one of the floors there. This was run by an Indian chap with his brothers and the food was an excellent change from the Chinese fare that I'd been eating until then. Being able to talk to someone who spoke good English was a nice change too.
The reason we came to Hefei was so that Matt and I could see the Huang Shan mountains in Central China. These are apparently the tallest mountains in China if you don't include the Tibetan Himalayas (Tibet used to be a separate country until 1959, but more on that later). So we booked a bus ticket from Hefei, which was a fairly hit-or-miss affair, and one morning went to the "bus-station", which was just a big concrete arena with busses and people all pointing and moving in different directions, to get ready for our 3-hour bus journey.
Seven hours later we sort of crash-landed on a town called Tangkou, near the mountains. I have still not discovered why I thought that the bus journey would take anything less than 7 hours but it was one of the most uncomfortable bus journeys ever. The bus was the standard Chinese knackered bus running on a fuel m,ix of diesel and extract of turnip with no suspension and the loudest horn on the road. This last point would not have been too bad had it not been for the way the driver was using it constantly to warn other drivers to get out of his way and pedestrians that he was bearing down on them. Needless to say, sleep was nearly impossible. About an hour into the journey, we still had not left Hefei by this point, we picked up an incredibly decrepit old lady. She was sort of dumped onto the bus and because all the seats had been taken the bus conductor produced a small child-size plastic chair and placed it on the gangway for her to sit on. I would have had trouble sitting on this thing and soon the old lady had to move to get out of the way of passengers who were still piling on. As the journey progressed she seemed to get more and more agitated, though I seemed to be the only one showing concern (Matt was asleep, lucky bugger). She then proceeded to throw up into a plastic bag, much to my disgust, though the reactions of my fellow Chinese passengers were still nonchalant. I always knew that in the cities Chinese were allowed only one child. I was perhaps not ready to see the level of utter selfishness that this has led to. Those spoiled commie bastards on that bus made me quite angry as this old lady was clearly in distress. I didn't offer my seat though so I'm hardly in the right, but I tried to assist her where I could. She didn't even offer thanks; she seemed a bit spaced-out.
So we arrived in Tangkou and this was the perfect end to the perfect journey. This town was about as far out of the way as possible, with the clouds moving in for the night and the coal smoke hanging in the air. Matt and I were dreading the process of finding somewhere to stay and also getting to the mountains themselves. I was getting ready to shoot myself when a small ray of light entered my life in the form of a local guide called Simon. He spoke good English and was open and friendly enough, notwithstanding my normal caution. He negotiated a very good nightly rate on one of the town's crappy hotels and invited us to his restaurant for tea. He explained that he learned English from the Chinese State TV programs aimed at students of the language and he wanted to show people around and be more of a guide. His only proviso was that we ate at his restaurant while we were in the town, which was fine as the food was cheap and tasty. He said that he's get us a taxi to the mountains and that we'd pay the local price, etc. etc. He was good to his word and the next day Matt and I took the trip up to the Huang Shan mountains.
Huang Shan means literally "Yellow Mountain". They're black though but I was able to contain my disappointment. We got to the entrance of the mountains at about 0830 and the place was busy already with ton of Chinese tourists each wearing their naff coloured caps. We paid and started the ascent. The Chinese decided at some point to cut and pave steps into the mountainside. This meant that we could ascend the whole mountain using the steps. This was okay, but it gave you the false impression that you could climb rapidly. This is not the case as the steps are uneven and the climb steep. There also about 10,000 of them. Unfortunately for us the clouds that rolled in the night before were still hanging around but as we go higher we passed through them. Two-thirds of the way up we could look back across a sea of cloud and see some of the lower peaks just poke through it. This was a beautiful sight and as the air was clear and clean I was enjoying the chance to breathe for a bit. When you reach the top the place comes across as more of a theme park as there's a lot of tourists up there who didn't take the stairs. Most parties take the cable cars to the top and then walk around the peaks, which is admittedly easier though I'm glad I walked. Fro the top we could see pretty much bugger-all because of the cloud which was disappointing though I was liking the exercise. The Chinese tourists were also a little rabid and spent most of the time shouting for echoes into the deep valleys and ravines and shouting "Hello" at us after we passed them. I was about ready to push one down the bloody ravine, witless wonders that they were. I appreciate that they don't see many westerners out there and that we are a source of curiosity and amusement to them, though there is just something nasty about the way they do it. Tibetans, for example, have the same exposure to us White Men though are far more charming and genuinely curious. They also have good manners.
The descent was hard as we'd walked up and then around the top and the downwards steps were just as steep and uneven, though making it to the bottom was bliss. I was even looking forward to the grotty shower in our hotel! But the experience of walking for a day in the clean air and even just seeing bits of the mountains was worth it. Getting back to Tangkou and talking it over with Simon was also good, as he always made us feel welcome and after the tourists on the mount he reminded me that it was wrong of me to start to paint all Chinese with the same brush. I began to warm to Tangkou as well, because unlike all other Chinese towns that I had seen so far there were people in the streets and even children playing which gave the town a pulse and a nice atmosphere. I am so glad that we met Simon otherwise we would not have even been able to do anything there.
Simon sorted us out bus tickets back to Hefei which we were grateful for and the following day we went back to our favourite Holiday Inn/Curry House. I managed to avoid leaving the hotel for 48 hours while we stayed there this time, waiting for our flight to Chengdu. After the hotel at Tangkou this was heaven and using the gym and other amenities was nice. However, until now I did not feel as though I had traveled "properly". From Chengdu this was about to be corrected.
The reason we came to Hefei was so that Matt and I could see the Huang Shan mountains in Central China. These are apparently the tallest mountains in China if you don't include the Tibetan Himalayas (Tibet used to be a separate country until 1959, but more on that later). So we booked a bus ticket from Hefei, which was a fairly hit-or-miss affair, and one morning went to the "bus-station", which was just a big concrete arena with busses and people all pointing and moving in different directions, to get ready for our 3-hour bus journey.
Seven hours later we sort of crash-landed on a town called Tangkou, near the mountains. I have still not discovered why I thought that the bus journey would take anything less than 7 hours but it was one of the most uncomfortable bus journeys ever. The bus was the standard Chinese knackered bus running on a fuel m,ix of diesel and extract of turnip with no suspension and the loudest horn on the road. This last point would not have been too bad had it not been for the way the driver was using it constantly to warn other drivers to get out of his way and pedestrians that he was bearing down on them. Needless to say, sleep was nearly impossible. About an hour into the journey, we still had not left Hefei by this point, we picked up an incredibly decrepit old lady. She was sort of dumped onto the bus and because all the seats had been taken the bus conductor produced a small child-size plastic chair and placed it on the gangway for her to sit on. I would have had trouble sitting on this thing and soon the old lady had to move to get out of the way of passengers who were still piling on. As the journey progressed she seemed to get more and more agitated, though I seemed to be the only one showing concern (Matt was asleep, lucky bugger). She then proceeded to throw up into a plastic bag, much to my disgust, though the reactions of my fellow Chinese passengers were still nonchalant. I always knew that in the cities Chinese were allowed only one child. I was perhaps not ready to see the level of utter selfishness that this has led to. Those spoiled commie bastards on that bus made me quite angry as this old lady was clearly in distress. I didn't offer my seat though so I'm hardly in the right, but I tried to assist her where I could. She didn't even offer thanks; she seemed a bit spaced-out.
So we arrived in Tangkou and this was the perfect end to the perfect journey. This town was about as far out of the way as possible, with the clouds moving in for the night and the coal smoke hanging in the air. Matt and I were dreading the process of finding somewhere to stay and also getting to the mountains themselves. I was getting ready to shoot myself when a small ray of light entered my life in the form of a local guide called Simon. He spoke good English and was open and friendly enough, notwithstanding my normal caution. He negotiated a very good nightly rate on one of the town's crappy hotels and invited us to his restaurant for tea. He explained that he learned English from the Chinese State TV programs aimed at students of the language and he wanted to show people around and be more of a guide. His only proviso was that we ate at his restaurant while we were in the town, which was fine as the food was cheap and tasty. He said that he's get us a taxi to the mountains and that we'd pay the local price, etc. etc. He was good to his word and the next day Matt and I took the trip up to the Huang Shan mountains.
Huang Shan means literally "Yellow Mountain". They're black though but I was able to contain my disappointment. We got to the entrance of the mountains at about 0830 and the place was busy already with ton of Chinese tourists each wearing their naff coloured caps. We paid and started the ascent. The Chinese decided at some point to cut and pave steps into the mountainside. This meant that we could ascend the whole mountain using the steps. This was okay, but it gave you the false impression that you could climb rapidly. This is not the case as the steps are uneven and the climb steep. There also about 10,000 of them. Unfortunately for us the clouds that rolled in the night before were still hanging around but as we go higher we passed through them. Two-thirds of the way up we could look back across a sea of cloud and see some of the lower peaks just poke through it. This was a beautiful sight and as the air was clear and clean I was enjoying the chance to breathe for a bit. When you reach the top the place comes across as more of a theme park as there's a lot of tourists up there who didn't take the stairs. Most parties take the cable cars to the top and then walk around the peaks, which is admittedly easier though I'm glad I walked. Fro the top we could see pretty much bugger-all because of the cloud which was disappointing though I was liking the exercise. The Chinese tourists were also a little rabid and spent most of the time shouting for echoes into the deep valleys and ravines and shouting "Hello" at us after we passed them. I was about ready to push one down the bloody ravine, witless wonders that they were. I appreciate that they don't see many westerners out there and that we are a source of curiosity and amusement to them, though there is just something nasty about the way they do it. Tibetans, for example, have the same exposure to us White Men though are far more charming and genuinely curious. They also have good manners.
The descent was hard as we'd walked up and then around the top and the downwards steps were just as steep and uneven, though making it to the bottom was bliss. I was even looking forward to the grotty shower in our hotel! But the experience of walking for a day in the clean air and even just seeing bits of the mountains was worth it. Getting back to Tangkou and talking it over with Simon was also good, as he always made us feel welcome and after the tourists on the mount he reminded me that it was wrong of me to start to paint all Chinese with the same brush. I began to warm to Tangkou as well, because unlike all other Chinese towns that I had seen so far there were people in the streets and even children playing which gave the town a pulse and a nice atmosphere. I am so glad that we met Simon otherwise we would not have even been able to do anything there.
Simon sorted us out bus tickets back to Hefei which we were grateful for and the following day we went back to our favourite Holiday Inn/Curry House. I managed to avoid leaving the hotel for 48 hours while we stayed there this time, waiting for our flight to Chengdu. After the hotel at Tangkou this was heaven and using the gym and other amenities was nice. However, until now I did not feel as though I had traveled "properly". From Chengdu this was about to be corrected.