Today our group of travelers left our ship, climbed aboard buses, and made a 2.5-hour journey from our dock to Huang Shan, Yellow Mountain, a national treasure of China. Although the weather was hardly favorable, with rain coming down strongly or sometimes partial clearing and fog and haze rolling by, we journeyed toward our destination through charming little towns, villages, and cities. The pastoral countryside was amazing in that every farmhouse in every land seemed to have crops of all types from rice to melons to corn to beans planted in a willy-nilly way to fill up nearly every square inch of ground. With mostly new roads traversed by cars, carts pulled by bicycles, and motorbikes, the mountains looming behind came closer and closer as we sped along.
See all the images from Dave's tour in our solar eclipse 2009 trip gallery.
When we reached Yellow Mountain, the air of the place was like a national park in the United States. We climbed up many steps and, after eating a fine lunch at a fancy hotel, boarded a huge cable car that could accommodate dozens at a time for a 20-minute journey incredibly high up in their air. We passed over six supporting columns, the car falling down and swaying after it reached each post, before coming to the end of our journey. The views were magnificent — Disney has nothing on this ride. That was just the beginning.
Our group spent about 2 hours hiking along high and perilous overlooks, viewing spectacular mountain panoramas with waterfalls, diverse green trees, birds flitting around, and spectacular rock outcrops. We were told that among the native animals are abundant monkeys, but we didn't see any and suspect they are mostly out at night.
In any case, it was a magnificent day, and we just returned to the ship to await dinner. Our Friday was splendid, and we carry on again tomorrow.
Follow Astronomy editors Dave Eicher and Michael Bakich as they continue their tours of China at Twitter.com/AstronomyMag (@AstronomyMag)
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