Huang Shan Mountain Part 2

Most people come and stay on the top of the mountain so they can get up early in the morning and see the sunrise. They say it's a "must" when you come here. Andi and I considered it but we were to tired to get up that early after the huge hike the day before. Luckily, we spoke to some of the people in our group who did get up early and they saw nothing but clouds. Lucky us!

The start of the long hike down!

However, even going down out of the mountain, we had to go back up at times. Some areas are super steep. On a side note, it was amazing to see how many older people were hiking up and down. I saw people in there 70's and 80's climbing right along with us. Here in China, older people are very active and love to exercise. Could be the secret to why they live longer then us. That and they eat a shitload of vegetables!

I love this photo.

These seven pictures above are just some of the scenes you see as you hike along the mountain. Clouds come and go, sun peaks out here and there. It's amazing to see how some of the rocks have formed over thousands of years.

The tree here is quite famous on the mountain, it's called "Welcoming Pine." It's not the best photo because I had to climb over many Chinese heads to get it. :p Some of the pine trees on the mountain are estimated to be over 1000 years old. Also, the climate of the mountain makes the area great for growing tea leaves. It has become one of the premier tea growing areas in China.

There is also a bridge along the trail that is famous for all the locks people put on it. People come here with locks that have been engraved with there names on them and put them on the bridge. This symbolizes that your hearts will be connected forever.

Some of the rocks have formed into shapes that look like animals. Here is one that looks like a fish in the middle and the head and body of a turtle to the left.

This one here looks like an elephant. Notice the people climbing near the trunk.

These two photo's show a monkey sitting on a cliff looking out at the mountain. None of these are man-made, all have formed over the years.

Speaking of monkey's, our tour guide warned us that we might see monkey's on the mountain and not to approch them or feed them. I came across this sign that I thought was cute. Of course, it's in Engrish(bad chinese english) but it's kinda funny. We didn't see any monkey's the entire time until....

....the last 10 minutes we were on the mountain we stumbled upon a family of them!! This little guy was eating out of a can someone had left lying around.

This baby monkey was so cute but I couldn't get a very good photo of him. He wanted to hide from us. The monkey's didn't stick around for long however. More and more people kept showing up, kids screaming and yelling, people clapping there hands trying to the monkey's attention. Eventually, the monkey's said "enough with this shit" and ran off.

Us on the mountain! :)