Overview

Huang Shan Hiking Tour

"This trip may only last for fifteen days, but the experience of Chinese culture/history and the memory of beautiful mountain scenery will last for a lifetime."

The Huang Shan Hiking Tour covers three main areas in China, all within the Province of An Hui. They include HuangShan, Mount JiuHua and the XinAn River.

In 1990 HuangShan was listed by UNESCO as a world culture and natural heritage area. It has many famous mountains with peaks over 1800 meters above sea level.

The HuangShan hike is a Day Hiking (8 to 10 km per day, 1 km = 0.621 mile) trip, as opposed to back packing. This means that each day after breakfast a bus takes us to the beginning of a hike, transfers our luggage and picks us up at the end of the hike. A hot shower always awaits us at the next hotel.

To see some of the hotels, click on this link.

2004 Huang Shan Hiking Group Diary

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More Interesting Stories
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General Daily Hiking Itineray

The Yellow Mountains hiking tour will start in Shanghai, where you will stay overnight in a hotel. Then, early in the morning you will fly into Yellow Mountains, in a city namedTunXi.

XinAn River : For the first four days we shall be hiking along the XinAn River areas.

HuangShan : For the next four days we shall be hiking in the Yellow Mountains( HuangShan) areas.

JiuHua Shan : For the last three days we shall be hiking in the JiuHua Shan( Mt JiuHua) areas.

We shall end our hiking tour and spend the afternoon of the second last day with a city tour at HeFei, the capital of AnHui Province. On the last day of our hiking tour, in the morning we will fly from HeFei to Shanghai. We shall arrive Shanghai at around noon time and you can arrange your connection flight to return home. The Yellow Mountains hiking tour will officially end as soon as your flight lands in Shanghai airport.

For details and daily itinerary, please click here.

Pilgrimage of a Taoist from USA

Sam

Imagine studying eastern philosophy, mysticism, and history for many years out of books but never truly witnessing this at its origins. Now, imagine knowing these thoughts, these ideas, these sacred teachings and finally getting to see it first hand. That is the opportunity that I was presented in May of 2004 through Tony Pao by way of China Hiking Adventures. Forget crowded tourist places that large groups visiting China see, this is the real, authentic, hard to reach sites that many westerners have never had the opportunity to visit.

Tony's trip allowed me the rare adventure that comes very seldom in the life of a person that loves Taoism and eastern thought. His trip allowed me the chance to visit a true Taoist temple and meet true Taoist priests in the land where Taoism originated, China. "That which can be described is not the Tao," as stated in the Tao Te Ching is also true of Tony's trip. Trying to describe the feeling one gets when setting foot on Qiyunshan (the Taoist mountain visited on his hiking adventure) is a feeling one cannot describe but only witness for themselves.

When visiting Qiyunshan, the air is fresher, the water cleaner, your life, better. As soon as we stepped foot onto the soil of this sacred Taoist site, I felt as if I were a different person. I couldn't wait to reach the top and visit the Temple of the Heavenly Master. I sprinted up the stairs leaving the rest of the group behind as if I were floating on a cloud. Meeting the locals along the way felt like meeting members of one's own family. The kindness, generosity, helpfulness that these people demonstrated could only come from a place that had a spiritual essence about it. This place was special. As we climbed, we saw numerous ancient alters and smaller cave temples dedicated to various gods in the Taoist pantheon. Once at the top, we entered the main temple filled with breathtaking statues of Lao Tzu, Guan Gong, the Jade Emperor, and many more. As a special treat, I brought a copy of my Tao Te Ching with me to have a priest write a Taoist inscription on the inside cover which he gladly did without hesitating. Once we saw the temple at our own pace, Tony surprisingly and unexpectedly, arranged a special Taoist meal at one of the priest's homes. To Tony's credit, I do not think any other guide could have or would have arranged this. Tony went over and beyond what a guide is required to do for his customer; he did what a friend should do for a friend. After our meal, we visited a cave temple that we were told has been in use for over 1000 years! Finally, after visiting some other sacred areas and observing everything we could at our heart's content, we descended the mountain and took a bamboo raft down the Hengjiang River to our bus that was waiting to take us back to our hotel for a hot shower.

Tony's trip provides the chance to see one of the four sacred Taoist mountains in China. Yet, it also provides the opportunity to witness first hand what so many of us have studied in books and have tried to attain in our daily life. It provides us with the chance to understand the true nature, chi, balance, and harmony. Thank you Tony!

Author : Sam is a Cardiovascular Perfusionist in USA

15 days of Tibet Nomad hiking experience
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Photos from hikers in the past
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