China Travel Forum

[Stanley]

We will be visiting Huangshan in Aug. IMy tour will take us from Cloud valley temple to White goose peak by cable car. Stay overnight at the Beihai Hotel. The next morning, we will take the cable car from Jade screen to Mercy Pavillion.

Could anyone tell me if this involve some sorts of walking on narrow paths by sheer cliffs? I am OK with height on a cable car (enclosed), but I can't see myself walking next to a big drop and I saw some scary pictures of Huangshan.

I am willing to skip the west side of Huangshan if necessary - please advise.

[frank]

My wife and I visited Huangshan and we enjoyed it. It is beautiful, the rocks are jagged and very Chinese, and the unique pine trees growing out of most unexpected places are a delight. This mountain is like one gigantic Chinese painting. The weather can change easily, and we went there when it was sunny. We don't know what it's like when the weather goes bad.

Surprisingly, the top of Huangshan is a flat piece of read estate. There is even a patch of wet land. Many people walk around on wide walkways like they are on a park outing. There is a medium sized hotel. The edges of the mountain are generally barricades with fences, but there are always intrepid people who would climb out to the precipices or up the rocks to demo their machismo, sometimes on leather dress shoes. We were not stupid and stayed on clearly marked and safe walkways, and everything was OK.

We did venture to the edge of some cliffs, hanged onto railings with white knuckles and looked down. The views straight down were spectacular, but our stomachs churned and all the butterflies fluttered. You don't have to brave that. But if you can bring yourself to do that once, maybe it can cure you of the fear of height. We did it and we are glad we did.

[Benjamin]

The risk of falling off a cliff is almost zero. There are rails all over. You do need certain amount of strength and endurance to tour the park. It can be very testing if you are an urban stiff like me. Try to spend two days on the mountain, as with 50% chance, the weather would be bad.

In my view, Huang Mt. is overrated, overpriced, and overcrowded. There are a lot of scriptures left on the rocks. They call it culture heritage, and we call it vadalism. There are a lot of far more beautiful mountains in China, most of them in the west part of the country.