We were both looking forward to our visit to Mt. Hungshuan. We survived a bus from Suzhou to Huangshuan City, then figured out how to get from there to Tangkou. Lesson learned: don't feed your children chicken feet on a bumpy bus. They will vomit.
The next day we took another bus to the entrance of the National Park. From there, we thankfully took a cable car part way up the mountain.
As we rode higher and higher we found ourselves in the midst of clouds. The clouds carried mist, then rain. Along the trails were lines of tourists in pastel colored ponchos. Then there was us. Two westerners in our lightweight backpacking gear- we stood out. The trails were stairways running up and down and around the mountains. There were so many visitors that sometimes you could just slowly take one step at a time (which I didn't mind.)
Our hotel was at the top of the park, so we hiked on, somewhat blindly. The only map we had was in Chinese. There are maps along the trails that show where you are, but they only show a small surrounding area of trails around you. So we had to guess which turn to take. After a couple hours our hotel's sign appeared on one of the maps and within 30 minutes we were checking in, dripping water all over the lobby.
The hotel felt luxurious and we took advantage of the clouds to relax inside. In the afternoon, the rain did stop so we went out to explore some. We found one treasured trail that was almost deserted. We also stumbled upon two views that were revealing themselves before the clouds rolled back in. Those views made the trip for us.
We were there two nights before taking the cable car back down the mountain so we could travel back for our first overnight train (!!!) The clouds were lighter and higher that last day, so as we rode the cable car, we left the park with some more spectacular views.
