Anhui, part 8: Around the Lotus

Our long day of hiking the paved trails at Huangshan continued. We passed the Gleam of Sky -- a steep staircase up a narrow chasm -- but didn't go up. That would require us to either circle back the way we'd just came or climb to the top of Lotus Peak.


Do you see the people? They're climbing the Gleam of Sky stairs.





Soon we were near the bottom of the Ladder on the Clouds, which we had viewed from afar earlier. It's another long, steep staircase. Naturally, men with sedan chairs waited for clients.


We chose to walk.





Up up up, we went. Only now, looking back at the photographs, do I realize that we lost the last little bit of blue sky that day while we had our noses pointed at the ground.



Eventually, we reached Lotus Pavilion, whereupon we sat down with a hundred other people and finished the last of our water. Still thirsty, we broke down and bought a 550-mL bottle for ten yuan (about ten times the price of water in the grocery store the night before).

Lotus Pavilion would have been a nice place to rest, if not for the constant tour guides. Why must they always be so loud? As soon as one left, another arrived and started yelling into his or her microphone. They got to be too much for me, and so we left.

Around the side of Lotus Peak at a viewpoint, I noticed something on the cliff above us...


We stayed with a good portion of our tour group (the ones we'd met the day before) through this section of trail.



The Chinese character is "shan," which means "mountain." Presumably they labeled the rock so you'd know you were looking at a mountain...?

After crossing through the gap between Lotus Peak and Lotus Stamens Peak, we caught sight of Heavenly Capital Peak once more.


But most people looked at the big rock known as Lotus Stamens Peak.


Nearing the end of our journey, our pace quickened, but that didn't stop me from taking a lot of photos.




I've got more scenic photos on flickr, as one might expect.