Special: How we cooked on the Yellow Mountains

Day 6 & 7: Sunrise, Hot Springs, and Ancient Villages

Our 6th day on our journey started at 4am in the morning. We wanted to see the sunrise. When we left the hotel, it was quite foggy/cloudy (you can't tell whether it's fog or clouds in that altitude) and were quite disappointed when we arrived at the spot where we wanted to see the sunrise because we could see nothing. Fortunately, we were patient and were able to capture this picture when the sun shined through a little hole in the clouds for five minutes.

Afterwards, we started climbing down the Yellow Mountains. It took us about 4 hours to get down. On our way down, we saw many workers again carrying shitloads of weights up the mountains.

You have to imagine that we were totally exhausted after we climbed up the mountains with nothing but a small backpack. These guys have to carry loads of stuff, such as several crates of beverages, huge cans of oil, whole windows, high voltage cables, and everything that could be needed up in the mountains.
At the bottom of the mountain we saw these cute monkeys.

The guide told us that you should not feed or tease them because they can be pretty aggressive. Woman in red clothes should watch out in particular because they can be pretty perverted (LOL).
When we arrived at the hotel we were exhausted and welcomed the opportunity to visit the famous hot springs at the Yellow Mountains. Here, we spent 5 hours (can't imagine that it's healthy) and bathed in aromatized pools, such as rice soup, green tea, ginseng, red wine, bamboo, Vitamin C, ore, coconut milk and many more.

The next day, we went to visit two ancient villages, Hongcun and Xidi, and tried to recover from all the climbing.

 At Hongcun, we saw a lot of art students painting and were pretty overwhelmed by their skills.

In the afternoon, we left the Yellow Mountains and traveled to Nanjing, the former capital of China. It has a beautiful old town and is also famous for its food.

 

The following map should give you a better understanding about or itinerary. Our next stop will be Xi'an! Follow the blog and stay updated :)

Day 5: Climbing Mount Huangshan

Early in the morning we took the bus to the starting point of the hiking track up the mountain. After some queuing, as there were quite some people around even at that time, we started the climb. We soon noticed that the whole track was artificially fortified and consisted of thousands of concrete stairs. This had a direct effect on our knees after climbing the mountain in two (instead of expected three) hours, even more so as all tracks on top as well consisted of stairs.

At the top Quanbo and I were faced with thick fog which hindered the sight considerably. Even though we managed to get a few glimpses here and there, we still had the feeling of missing out. We decided to do a short round of about four hours to get a feeling of the track and to bet on being lucky at least at some spots. As the weather got worse over time (and so did our knees) we made it an early night and went to bed at around 5pm, after having packed our bags for early departure the next morning.

Day 4: Arriving in the Yellow Mountains

Early in the morning of the fourth day, we took the first available bus from Suzhou to Huangshan (黃山) , the famous mountain range that reached 1,800m and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a 6 hour ride we took a room in a hotel and started off to our first adventure to visit a nice and peaceful waterfall near the Huangshan mountains. The place itself offered a beautiful and quiet scenery and the water of the falls was crystal clear. The whole way up to the top however we were accompanied by some rather disturbing techno music blasting out of some random speakers, which did not seem to bother the Chinese visitors much (I was the only non-Chinese). At the top there was a pavilion featuring some live singing acts of semi-naked transvestites (even more disturbing), to entertain the local crowd. Fascinated by the scenery of the waterfall we did not pay too much attention to the entertainment program offered.

After returning from the falls we decided to spoil ourselves a bit with some amusement and went white-water rafting (kind of). The paddling along the river and the water slides in between were fun, but they cannot be compared with the intense water battles we had with some other Chinese boats during the ride. Soaked wet and tired we returned to the hotel to pack our bags for the departure to the Huangshan mountains hiking track early morning on the next day.

Day 2-3: The heaven on earth: Suzhou

On the second day, we went to the Fabric Market in Shanghai where you can get tailored suits and shirts for little money. Thanks to the Julian, Lisa, and Qiqi's sign we were able to find one of the better tailors in the market. Gregor showed some Arabic negiotation skills and we only paid 520RMB per suit and 110RMB per shirt (exchange rate is 1€:7RMB).

In the afternoon, a former colleague of mine (Charles) at Shanghai Volkswagen gave us a ride to Suzhou. This city is considered as one of the most beautiful in China and we were immediately stunned by the beauty of our hostel (Water Town Hostel).

Charles took us also to our second all-you-can-eat-and-drink dinner, which was a seafood hotpot restaurant.

This restaurant was located right next to a beautfiul lake (forgot the name) with a very nice view on the skyline of Suzhou.

In the background you can see the tallest building in Suzhou which is shaped like a huge pair of pants.

On the second day in Suzhou, we joined a tourist group because we thought it was cheap and convenient. Our guide took us to a boat ride, the silk museum, the pearl museum, and one of China's four most beautiful gardens. We were wondering why the museums were for free but then figured out that Chinese museums are pretty different. The focus of the museums are not really on the topic itself, but rather selling you silk and pearl products.

After the tour, we went to the amazing old town of Suzhou. This is by far one of the most beautiful old towns I have seen so far in China.

In the old town, Gregor had the opportunity to try some pig feets (after sea urchins in Shanghai).

 

Weird thing of the day :D

Day 1: Arrival in Shanghai

你好 (Ni hao = Hallo) lovely people out there. We created this blog in order to keep you guys updated on our backpacking trip through China. Gregor and I have been traveling since 20th May 2015 and this is our first post.

We landed in Shanghai on 20th May 2015 and took the Maglev (German: Transrapid) from the airport to downtown Shanghai. It is, to my knowledge, still the only operating Maglev in the world and can reach up to 430km/h.

 

Once we arrived in downtown Shanghai we had to take the obligatory picture at the Bund with one of the most beautiful skylines in the world.

We honestly don't know this girl...:D

We spent the rest of the day getting some organizational things done, such as buying SIM cards (always buy China Unicom!). We had dinner at Gintei Teppanyaki and enjoyed all-you-can-eat-and-drink (YES) Japanese food.

Afterwards, we somehow ended up in Muse (one of my favorite clubs in Shanghai).