There’s nothing quite like a four-hour hike up a mountain to remind you how out of shape you are.

One month ago I boarded a bus for a six-hour journey to the city of Huangshan, where I would spend my weekend hiking the infamous Yellow Mountain. Growing up in a sparsely populated place like Nebraska, I always scoffed at the idea of people needing to get out of the city. Why would anyone want to escape the city? That’s where all the good stuff is! Who needs fresh air, trees and broad landscapes? Who needs to see the sky past the soaring skyscrapers?

Me. I do. I now understand what it really means to need to escape the city once in a while. The constant crowds and stress from such a fast paced lifestyle (it’s especially crowded and fast in Shanghai) can get to be too much sometimes. So I booked a weekend trip with a Shanghai-based travel company called WannaTravel. I was apprehensive about tackling the mountain alone and rather than research it myself or accept my boyfriend’s advice (“You can hike it alone; you don’t need a group!”) I decided to take the easy route and have it planned for me. I detest traveling in groups larger than 4 or 5 people, but I thought I would keep an open mind and give it a shot.

I arrived in Huangshan City at about 1:30 am and settled into a dimly lit hotel room with sparkly walls and bed as hard as concrete. I fell asleep quickly, as we had to leave by 8 am the next morning. Breakfast was a simple one, Chinese style, with bao zi, congee, bananas and boiled eggs. Post-breakfast, we boarded the bus for a short stop at the “ancient” part of the city, called Tunxi. Huangshan City itself used to be named Tunxi, but was changed to Huangshan City to spur tourism. Currently, Huangshan is leading tourist destination in China, according to Wikipedia.

Tunxi was, like many “ancient” towns in China, a reconstructed version of the original. To my untrained eye, it looked quite authentic and I enjoyed browsing the small shops selling a yellow-flower tea, fountains and Chinese calligraphy brushes. We returned to the bus for an hour long journey to the foot of the mountain, where we would have lunch and begin the hike.

 

Lunch was a simple Chinese shared meal of rice, cabbage, pork belly, spicy rice noodles and other assorted dishes. Before long it was time to board a different bus headed for the point at which we were to begin our hike.

Two scenic bus rides later we began our hike. The temperature was supposed to be near freezing, and ever over-prepared, I was wearing two layers of pants, a thermal undershirt, a t-shirt, a fleece jacket and a winter coat. I had stocked up on oxygen activated hand warmers and had the biggest scarf imaginable.

All of these layers were rendered unnecessary within the first twenty minutes. Hiking in China isn’t a dirt or gravel trail as it usually would be in the United States. Instead, at the major national park they have created impeccably uniform stone steps for tourists to traverse. And at Huangshan they are uphill 95% of the time, with only small landings offering rest.

I seriously questioned my life choices. What had made me think that I, a girl whose workouts consist of leisurely 15 minute walks to work on flat land and grew up in a thoroughly sea level state, could hike a real-life mountain? Why hadn’t I taken the cable car with the others that had opted out of the grueling 4-hour semi-vertical hike? As Chinese grannies with canes passed me easily I had to weigh my options. I could alert the tour guide and walk back to the cable car or I could finish what I started.

I don’t like to quit. So I chose to finish what I started.

It helped that I was not alone. Within the first hour, I made friends with Eve, a lovely girl in her 30s from Taiwan who was having the same problem as I. She seemed perplexed that I was also bringing up the rear due to my “age and body size”, but we banded together just the same.

After the first hour, things got easier. My legs went a bit numb and we took frequent breaks. Every so often the group ahead of us would take a break to wait for us, but once we got to a particularly challenging fork in the road – I mean, semi-vertical stone staircase – the group leader sent us the name of the hotel and said “see you there”. I was grateful for this as I did not like the shame of holding anyone up.

The options were twofold: 1. Keep going straight and take a shorter, less vertical path or 2. Take a right and climb to the tallest peak, Celestial Peak. The latter carried tales of climbers having to grip ropes to pull themselves up the incredibly steep staircases and the wind was already becoming violent at our current altitude.

As you might have guessed, I chose the first option. I vowed to return to Huangshan one day when I was a bit more fit and climb that peak, but today was not that day. Eve and I continued along with her friend Ruby, who runs marathons and was unsurprisingly in the front of the group previously.

After what seemed like an entire day we reached our destination. The views along the way were incredibly breathtaking and I all but forgot the anguish of the first hour. As we approached the top we were lucky to see the famous “Sea of Cloud” included in every Huangshan tourism ad. The altitude was such that it looked like the surrounding mountains were islands in a sea of clouds with the blue, blue sky overhead. It was one of those moments that are nearly impossible to capture on camera so you just have to stand there and soak it in. Standing in the face of such a view with the awareness of what it took for me to get there made me extremely emotional. As they say, anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I wouldn’t have felt half as good about being at the top if I had taken the cable car up. The journey is half the fun.

We stayed in a hotel built into the side of the mountain. The prices were extremely high for a Chinese hotel, but I guess that’s what you can do when your location is literally on top of a mountain. We had a dinner similar to our lunch and retired to our six person dorms by 8. With a 5 am wake up call, no one was feeling the pressure to stay up late.

In the morning we gathered our things and went on a short thirty-minute hike in the dark to the sunrise viewing point. I love a good sunrise and as we made our way to the view point the misty mountains adopted a bluish gray hue while the sky began to turn light orange. I was awestruck, unable to think of a time I had seen such colors in nature before. It’s difficult to describe. The sunrise did not disappoint and soon there was a glowing orange orb on the horizon making the colors dance and change every second. It was absolutely stunning.

Following the sunrise, we carried on and assumed our positions: the experienced hikers in the front, Eve, Ruby and I in the back. Day Two was not as tough as the first day – we were already at the top so where was there to go? The trail did go up and down but it wasn’t nearly as bad. By noon we were making our way to the cable car to descend the rest of the mountain and return to the bus for lunch and the ride home.

Travel is not easy, and the most memorable experiences are the ones where you have to put the work in in order to get the payoff. This trip was definitely one of those experiences, and because it was so difficult that made the accomplishment of pushing myself and overcoming that difficulty even more satisfying. I will be attempting to find an affordable gym here in Shanghai – it’s not easy! – before I set out on my next mountain hiking experience, but I am nevertheless excited for my next adventure.