Note: Please ignore the next post of sunrise to sunset and just proceed to the pictures below it:
23 September 2009
We woke up this morning a little after 4am to hike up to Brightness Peak for 6 am sunrise. However we chose the wrong path from the hotel and then couldn't figure out the spartan trail map, so we decided to hike up Purple Cloud Peak instead. We made it up in less than 30 minutes and hiked a little off the trail to find a nice eastern facing view. Off in the distance excited Chinese were screaming and shouting. Nearby a woman was singing a Chinese song. We could see swarms of clouds over the first row of mountains but it was by no means the most spectacular sunrise I have ever seen. After a quick jaunt down the mountain, we had a few snacks for breakfast and headed off in the correct direction to Brightness Peak. We wandered around taking a few side trails and tons of photos but eventually made it to the 1860 m summit, rising an estimated 200 m from the Pai Yun Lou hotel. Our time was roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes. There was even a hotel up on the peak and we were thankful we weren't staying there. I'm not sure we would've found it or even made it up there yesterday. We decided this would be a good viewing area for sunset. We grabbed some food at the shop up on the summit and then headed back to our hotel for a nice two hour nap.
We headed up to Brightness Peak one more time for sunset. This time we took 45 minutes to hike the 3km. Without the hordes of people it would probably take 30 minutes. We climbed over a few rocks and found a nice secluded area for sunset. Hiking these peaks for sunrise and sunset is a gamble because you are never sure whether the top will be clouded over. However we were lucky and the clouds cleared at the top and afforded us a view of the famous Huangshan cloud sea below us. We watched as the sea flowed quickly over the crevasses of the lower peaks, like a waterfall, filling in the basin created by the mountain sides. The sun peaked though and lit up the marshmallow dolloped surface in pinks and purples. Unfortunately right at sunset (5:55 pm) the mist overcame and blocked the view.
We had dinner at the Pai Yun Lou Hotel restaurant again. Tonight we had fried potato shreds (I had envisioned hashbrowns but it wasn't quite as fried but still tasty), meat dumplings, and sweet and sour pork. Tomorrow will be another early morning to catch the sunrise at Beihai and then the knee crushing 9km descent down the western stairs.
-Julia
P.S. One little side note. Its about a 2400 foot climb from the base of Mt. Huangshan to our hotel, and from there another 600 feet to Brightness Peak.