Climbing Huangshan

The whole of the 6 weeks I spent travelling around the enormous and eternally interesting country of China when I was 18, was all a big adventure. Yet one experience that I immediately think of when I reflect on my time in the country is when I climbed the Huangshan Mountain range, in the Anhui Province of Eastern China.
After beginning my adventure by taking a sleeper train from Shanghai, I began my climb from Tangkou, a village at the base of the mountain range.
After a delayed start, it was 10am by the time I began walking and it already over 40 degrees and the sun was high in the sky. Often only an hour I was exhausted, soaked in sweat and a substantial way through my water supplies. But with the support of my fellow climbers I carried on through the un-comfortable heat. Towards the end of our climb things became more interesting when the blue skies above us suddenly turned grey and we found ourselves hiking through a torrential downpour.
Yet the rain gave us the welcome excuse to take the cable car for the last part of our ascent. At the top we purchased some wonderful bright yellow ponchos and trudged on up many more stone steps, tredding carefully to avoid the enormous toads that came flowing past in the water.
When we finally found our accommodation, every one of us dreaming of a hot shower, we found that we were actually staying in the hotel staff quarters, not in the hotel as previously thought. We had one room of bunk beds with no air-conditioning and no mosquito nets, our wash facilities consisting of an outside tap. Dubious stains covered the white bedding, but luckily as we planned to wake at 4am for the sunrise our stay was mercifully brief and when we did finally witness this spectacular sunrise the bad night’s sleep seemed immediately worth it.
When descending the mountain the most remarkable site was the men carrying enormous loads of hotel supplies hanging from poles over their backs. To let them pass I had to pin myself against to the rock face and I couldn’t help but gaze in horror at the strain on their faces and the sweat that dripped off them.
Further down the mountain we came across some large and rather un-friendly looking monkeys who were fearlessly approaching walkers for food. As children passed them food with their tiny hands I held my breath and prayed that I didn’t witness any loss of limbs. I could make out dozens more lurking in the trees just back from the path, prompting a shiver to run down my back and me to walk on hurriedly.
We made it safely back to Tongkau by early afternoon and a blissful swim in an outdoor pool finished off the adventure perfectly.