Luoyang 5-Day Tour: Huangshan

Board at Luoyang Longmen in the morning, change at Zhengzhou East for a southbound train, and after Hefei South the tunnels come thick and fast; Huangshan North by four in the afternoon. A car takes you to Tunxi, the hotel near the old street, and you are out walking within minutes. The street runs over a kilometre, horse-head gables above the shopfronts, inkstones and tea and sesame cakes for sale, a groove worn down the middle of the flagstones by barrows. Dinner is hairy tofu and stinky mandarin fish, the tofu pan-fried crisp outside and soft within.

Attraction introduction: Tunxi old street runs beside the Xin an River in Huangshan city, its shape set in the Song and its role as a Huizhou trading depot fixed in the Ming and Qing. The surviving shopfronts are mostly late Qing, workshop behind shop, the gable walls raised for fire control. Stinky mandarin fish is fermented under stones in wooden barrels until the flesh pulls from the bone.

Tips: The day is mostly transport, arriving at dusk. Guests generally find the street better after dark, lanterns on and shops open until half past nine. In practice the hotel is at the street entrance, three minutes back after the walk.

Leave Tangkou at seven, transfer to the park bus for Yungu Temple, queue twenty minutes and ride eight minutes up as the pine forest drops away below. Step off at Bai-e Ridge and walk toward Shixin Peak, pines growing out of cracks in the rock, the Black Tiger Pine needing two people to span its trunk. Lunch at Beihai, then cross to Xihai in the afternoon, where Paiyun Pavilion looks down on a field of stone tips. Reach Bright Summit at four and stay there; the viewing platform is at the door, and the sun goes down into cloud, the horizon burning in a single line.

Attraction introduction: Shixin Peak stands in the northern sea at over 1,600 metres, sheer on three sides, named for the Ming traveller who only believed in Huangshan once he stood here. Bright Summit is the second highest point on the mountain, flat on top, with the weather station built upon it.

Tips: The summit runs seven or eight degrees colder, so add a fleece morning and evening. Guests generally find food expensive up top, a bowl of noodles at forty yuan, and carrying snacks pays. In practice heavy bags stay in the vehicle below and only one night of clothes goes up.

Up at half past five and out to Qingliang Terrace in the dark, where two rows of tripods are already set. The sun appears at twenty past six, a red point first, then clear of the cloud, lighting the summits while the sea below stays motionless. Breakfast at the hotel, then west at nine for the Grand Canyon, riding the funicular down and following the stone steps along the cliff, a strip of sky overhead. Back at Tianhai for lunch, then Ao Yu Peak and the Hundred Step Ladder in the afternoon to Yuping Tower, the Greeting Pine beside the path, its trunk held by steel cables. Down by the Yuping cableway at four.

Attraction introduction: Qingliang Terrace juts from the flank of Lion Peak facing east, the traditional sunrise spot. The West Sea Grand Canyon is cut between the peaks of Xihai, its floor at 1,200 metres, the funicular climbing nearly five hundred metres on the diagonal. The Greeting Pine stands east of Yuping Tower, over eight hundred years old, one branch extended like an arm.

Tips: The descent is continuous steps, and a knee support helps more than a stick. Guests generally find the front range busiest, Yuping Tower jammed at midday. In practice the front range comes in the afternoon when the groups have gone down.

Feicui Valley in the morning: a bamboo grove at the entrance, water audible after ten minutes, the streambed scoured into round basins, the water pale green and the deeper pools blue. Turn back at the lovers bridge, under three kilometres in all with few steps. Lunch at Tangkou, then back to Tunxi and a seat in a Liyang lane, where old houses have become bookshops and tea rooms. Another night on the old street.

Attraction introduction: Feicui Valley lies at Shancha village in Tangkou, a gorge below Huangshan where the stream has drilled dozens of coloured pools into the granite, the colour shifting with depth, green in the shallows and blue in the deep. The rock is granite worn by grit into potholes.

Tips: The stones are wet and slippery, so do not jostle for position at the pools. Guests generally find the water looks better under cloud than in sun. In practice the valley follows the descent by a day, when the legs no longer want height.

Check out and drive forty minutes into Huizhou district to Chengkan. The village is laid out on the eight trigrams, lanes narrow between high walls, a water channel running past every door where residents still wash vegetables. The Luo Dongshu shrine is the largest building, its Ming ceiling paintings still coloured. Lunch is Huizhou cooking in the village, then the road back to Huangshan North for the train to Zhengzhou.

Attraction introduction: Chengkan sits on the southern slopes of Huangshan, founded in the Eastern Han, the village set against a hill and facing water with lanes arranged by trigram. The Luo Dongshu shrine is Ming, its rear hall framework and painted ceiling intact, listed as a national heritage site.

Tips: The lanes are a maze, and following the water channel keeps you found. Guests generally find the shrines worth more than the houses, with guiding included in the ticket. In practice the return train is booked after four so nothing is rushed.