For a long time, I used "One must have a body and a soul on the road" as various signatures of mine, initially just because it seemed quite high-end.
Year after year, I have been to many places: jumping on the sand dunes in Dunhuang with colleagues, stepping into the fairyland of Jiuzhaigou with my mother, leaving footprints on Phuket Island holding hands with a girl. I also experienced countless firsts: the first time my sweaty hands tightly gripped the airplane seatbelt, the first time chasing camels in the desert, the first time spitting out sea water and yelling, "Wow, it’s so salty!"
With every trip, the meaning of travel became clearer — not because of the “body and soul” soup, not for showing off on social media, but to step outside my own world, to see more and to travel farther. I enjoy the kind of unguarded communication among strangers during travels, the heartfelt blessings hidden beneath the superficiality. When you set foot on a mysterious foreign land, when you hear your companions share differing life stories under various customs, when you hear a “fighting” from the mouths of people beside you or even from strangers in another country during difficult times, you can’t help but marvel that beyond the monotonous 9-to-5 life, the meaning of life can be infinitely magnified!
1. Departure
I love spontaneous trips, without any detailed plans, strolling around, adapting to circumstances, much better than hurriedly following a tour guide through tourist spots, where quantity outweighs quality. This trip was planned for 5 days, relatively ample time. Apart from the train tickets going, and the plane tickets returning, I didn’t book a hotel, didn’t read any guides, and did no homework, making the experience quite carefree.
On the first day, the start of a long journey, besides the excited driver sending us to the station who sang many revolutionary songs, the whole trip was rather dull. We arrived in Huangshan City in the afternoon, a small town in Huizhou style appeared before me. Although it is a brand new Huizhou-style city, for someone like me who grew up in Anhui, there was not much novelty. Walking on the old street, I was too lazy to take out the camera, watching groups of tourists taking pictures, feeling the long-lost sense of “hometown.”
[Image: A relatively famous old street]
The first day was spent on the train and in the city, without anything novel. However, what I hadn’t expected was that the locals in Huangshan were much nicer than I imagined.
When it comes to Huizhou, most people can associate it with Huizhou merchants. Those who have been mixing in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou for years should have a unique understanding of the “merchants” in Zhongguancun, the Nightless City, and Huaqiangbei. Considering this, I was a bit cautious before coming here, but after a day of wandering, my view changed. Locals were very willing to help others, and often when asking for directions, the counterparts would smile and carefully explain, I didn't meet anyone who said “I don't know” or simply ignored me.
Many sellers were older men and women, although they sold things for profit, most of the time, they would smile back at you when you bargained, selling at very low prices.
There were many human-pulled rickshaws locally, usually ridden by older men. They wouldn’t overcharge and mostly offered very reasonable prices. We rode from the old town to the supermarket, taking about 20 minutes. There were some uphill roads, and the fare for the two of us was only 6 yuan. Seeing the driver's sweating head, I really couldn’t bear it, so I gave him 10 yuan and said to keep the change. The driver was very happy, repeatedly saying “Thank you, thank you.”
2. Huangshan
The second day, I lazily got up at almost 9, as planned, we prepared to stay on the mountaintop for a night so we weren’t in a hurry. After breakfast, we took a taxi to the bus station and reached the foot of Huangshan after an hour's ride.
Upon arriving at Huangshan, Robin immediately activated his enviable chatting mode. Thanks to this skill, our 2-day “climbing” process on the mountain was not “lonely.” First, we met a mother-daughter pair from Shanghai, who we shared the same hotel with, and climbed a large stretch together; later we met a girl who had started her ascent before dawn, while we were still heading toward a certain scenic spot, she had already visited most of the attractions; in the afternoon of the first day, we came across a couple in their 40s from Beijing, who seemed to often go out to play. They initially only planned to spend one day on the mountain, but later realized that one day was too tight. After meeting us, under Robin's recommendation, we helped them book two beds at our hotel using Baidu Maps; during our climb, we also met a couple of girls from Guangzhou, and due to similar routes, we traveled to Hongcun together.
Robin really wanted to climb up, while I was rather lazy. Before going up, I consulted some locals and ultimately decided to take the cable car.
The cable car to the top looked no different from other tourist areas at first glance, but once seated, one could appreciate the vastness of the project.
The wonders of Huangshan are best felt on the cable car, the first time was on the Yiping cableway while ascending, the second time on the cloud valley cableway in the West Sea Grand Canyon. Both times I couldn’t help but be in awe. The deep chasms below, cascading waterfalls, dense jungles changing constantly, what kind of power can erect such iron structures in this extremely complicated and perilous mountain? At times, we even doubted whether such engineering was achievable by current technology.
The wonders and peril of Huangshan were the most profound feelings during this ascent. The tour route is not particularly complicated, one might be in a rush if in a single day, but if conditions allow, staying a night at the mountaintop to watch the starry sky at night and the sunrise in the morning is excellent. Along the way, the textbook mentioned attractions like “Welcome Pine,” “Monkey Watching the Sea,” and “Dream Pen Blossom” can all be seen one by one. Of course, apart from these famous spots, the West Sea Grand Canyon is a must-visit attraction, too beautiful to be expressed in words.
Me being cute with Robin under the Welcome Pine
The track cable car in the West Sea Grand Canyon only takes 7 minutes down from the mountaintop, but it takes about 2 hours to climb back up the stairs. It’s advisable to walk down and then take the cable car up. We chose to do the opposite, and that feeling was quite “intense.”
After getting off the cable car, looking back up, it was another incredible “miracle.”
Stairs going up from the valley, with an average slope of 70°, can really tire one out...
After hours of climbing the stairs, we had to stop and rest after every short distance covered.
During the ascent, Robin was always excited, continuously telling descending travelers, “Come on, you are almost there!” The travelers would respond warmly, quite harmonious. Later, we passed a group of people, and everyone acted as though they hadn’t heard anything, not even raising their heads, creating a rather awkward atmosphere. It was at this moment we suddenly discovered they were speaking Korean and realized they were a foreign group. Since then, whenever Robin saw people, he stopped saying “Come on” and instead switched to “fighting!” This time, it became a universally understood language, and we no longer encountered any “coldness.” Interestingly, some older Korean ladies also humorously responded with “fighting! fighting!”
We met an elderly couple on the road; while Robin was taking their photo, the elder said, “Take it, take it; we won't be able to take any more later. I’m already 75, this will be the last time climbing Huangshan.”
On the early morning of the second day, watching the sunrise from Bright Top, we were quite lucky to see it, all wrapped in bed sheets, witnessing the variously dressed people observing the sunrise.
Besides Huangshan, we also visited Hongcun for two days. I initially wanted to write about it together, but given the length, I’ll wait until I have more time.
The two days on the mountain were just right; climbing uphill, sweating, watching the sunrise, leisurely observing life, is it not also a journey full of meaning?
