Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

marvelling at other-worldly views: Beginning to Believe Peak is decorated with a
fine sprinkling of Huángshān’s signature pines, while a solitary rock stack – Flower
Blooming on a Brush Tip – pokes out from the forest with a single pine sprouting
from its top.
After an impromptu game of basketball with some porters (where do they get the
energy?), we bed down early, knowing we’ve got to be up before dawn to have any
chance of seeing the famed Yun Hai (Sea of Clouds), a morning mist that fills the
valleys with fog and turns distant peaks into floating islands.
It’s still pitch black when we’re woken by our dorm pals. We put on the heavy,
army-surplus overcoats that are rented out to shivering tourists, and follow them
into the crisp night air, soon reaching Refreshing Terrace where we wait for the sun
to rise. Only it doesn’t. Today is too cloudy, so the magical morning mist – that Sea
of Clouds – is indistinguishable from the actual clouds that simply envelop us. No
mystical floating mountains; just mist.
The expectant crowds grow impatient and start hollering and whooping in an
attempt to get some sort of Mexican wave-like echo going. We cut our losses and
decide to begin our long descent down the mountain, quickly discovering that
yesterday’s climb was a doddle.
Today’s Western Steps are even longer – 9 miles! (15km) – and the repetitive
step-down motion soon has us dreaming of flat ground. Thankfully there’s respite
along the way, not least when we reach Huángshān’s most iconic tree; Yingke
Song (Greeting Guests Pine). There’s a bottleneck of hikers here, but our thighs,
now shaking with every downward step, welcome the wait. We’ve seen a lot of pine
trees, but this one’s special; perched serenely beside a huge granite rock, with two
layers of branches reaching out to the valley below, like arms extending for a hug.
We’ve seen the image on paintings, in photos – how surreal to now have the
actual tree right in front of us, while we stand halfway up a misty mountain in
central China. We don’t yet know that we’ll be unable to walk forwards down steps
for three days to come, but even if we did, we wouldn’t regret being here for a
moment. DMC
A CULTURAL ICON
Since AD 747 when its name was changed by imperial decree to honour the