Huang Shan, Going Up


There are two ways up Huangshan, you can either walk (steep, long, requires stamina beyond mere mortals) or you can take the cable car. Let me tell you about the cable car, because I would have to pretend I knew something about the walk. 
As I stepped into the cable car's little green bubble I was very cheered up by the 'Made in Austria' sign on the engine wheel. Not to say that 'Made in China' is not synonymous with high standards of safety and quality. Just that those Austrians are quite particular and thorough about making things that don't fall apart. Like cuckoo clocks. And it was a long way up. 
'It's not so steep' I thought, until we reached the summit of the first peak and I looked down into a small valley, then up, up, up to the highest point in the photo between the two summits. A long way in a bubble, and really quite extremely steep, and as we hit the crosswinds and swayed about, a few hundred metres off the ground, I found it very helpful to keep repeating 'Made in Austria, Made in Austria, Made in Austria' til my feet were firmly on the ground of the White Goose Ridge Station. Guess I'll be walking down then.

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