Staying in Huangshan was the highlight of our China trip before Xi’an. Huangshan is a smaller city, but it is really spread out and beautiful. Much of the city uses old architecture, and there are some pretty cool markets to check out. Even though the city of Huangshan is a really great place to check out, the majority of tourists only come to Huangshan to check out the Yellow Mountains.
How to get there
From Huangshan, you are pretty much limited to two options to get to the Yellow Mountains: bus or taxi. We booked a bus through our hostel, which was 35 Chinese Yuan (about 5 US Dollars). You can also book a taxi, but expect to pay around 150 Chinese Yuan (about 20 US Dollars) or more. The same goes for the people that decide to go from the close city of Tunxi. The bus or taxi will then drop you off at the Visitor Center. This is where you need to buy tickets for the shuttle buses to get to the base of the mountain (about 19 Chinese Yuan). There is NO other way to get to the base of the mountain besides these shuttle buses. NOTE that the last shuttle is at 4pm, so time your hiking so you don’t get stranded.
You can go to different areas of the mountain, but the easiest/closest is the Southern gate which took us to the area we wanted to hike, called Yungusi. From the southern gate, you must then take a shuttle bus up to the cable car/hiking entrance area. So again, you have to pay for a shuttle bus, which was about 19 Chinese Yuan/person one way (about 3 US Dollars).
On the mountain
The shuttle bus will take you directly to the cable car area or the hot spring area. If you want to get to the top to get pictures you should go to the cable car area.
The area that we decide to hike is called Yungusi, which is on the far right of the map I showed above (the Red circle with the Green person).
BE WARNED: The price to get into the mountain area was 230 Chinese Yuan (about 34 US Dollars) per person. This is not including the price for the cable car. The price goes down to 150 Chinese Yuan (about 15 US Dollars) after December 1st.
The earliest time you can get into the mountain is 7am, but keep in mind that this is a VERY busy time for the cable car. The line could take up to 2 hours.
Because the line for the cable car was so long, we decided to hike up and take the cable car down. We hiked for about three hours before we reached the top of the mountain. BE WARNED: the hike up is steep and you are basically going up the whole way. They had a paid service where you can be carried up the top but that comes with a price. For us, it was a pretty good workout. Even though it was a tough hike, the route was busy. There were men carrying food and supplies up to the hotels on top of the mountain. I still don’t know how they manage to carry all that food up the mountain. They only use bamboo sticks to balance the weight on their shoulders. The food they were carrying was for the hotels and residents living up on the top and they looked really heavy!
REMEMBER to bring food and water. There were small food stalls along the hike incase you forget to bring your own. I didn’t buy the food there so I’m not sure on the prices.
The weather in November was very cold, so BRING clothes that would keep you warm.
It is possible to stay on top of the mountain, but it is severely overcharged. Even getting into the mountain costs around 230 Chinese Yuan (about 30 US Dollars). Taking the cable car is an extra 80 Chinese Yuan (about 10 US Dollars) each way.
Getting home
To get down from the base of the mountain, you have to pay for another shuttle bus. You can choose to go back to the Visitor Center (again, about 19 Chinese Yuan) or go to the hot springs (about 9 Chinese Yuan).
Our hostel made it seem like the same bus that took us to the mountain would take us back. I don’t think that’s how it works. We waited for a while at the stop that we got off at. The bus never came, and there were numerous cab drivers trying to haggle with us. We eventually found a bus that went back to Huangshan city. Knowing no Chinese hurt us a little here. We pointed to our address, and the driver said yes. So we hoped that he would drop us off fairly close. We passed out quickly on the bus, and woke to the driver screaming at us to get off. We got off at some random place at the other side of Huangshan. I think it’s best to find as much information you can to before you go to get home.
I enjoyed our time there, but I personally think that the price was a little steep. If I would have known the price for the entrance goes down after December 1st, I would have waited until then.
Happy Travels!
