Huangshan Departure (10/21/2012)

Sunday, October 21, 2012
We were up early to get a good position for watching the sunrise. There were already crowds of people:

Waiting:

KSS

The clouds are turning pink:

KSS

Clouds with a silver lining:

Here comes the sun:

Ooooh!

The hotel provides down jackets for cold early mornings:

The Beihai Hotel:

The Paint Brush Rock:

The pine tree on the top of the paint brush represents either the bristles or a flower.
We started the hike to the cable car. A leaf blower:

Philiosophy:

Accommodating the trees:

Trunk of a Dendrobenthamia japonica/Kousa Dogwood:

Our "friends" from Malaysia:

Other folks older than we are:

Castanea seguinii/Chestnut leaves:

Our gondola:

The perspective is off - we are going down:

Crags and peaks:

Buddha Head Rock:

Top of the bamboo forest:

Cable car station at the bottom:

KSS

Goodbye, Huangshan!

After leaving the cable car, we were met by our driver, and bypassed the lines for the shuttle buses back to Tangkou. We were heading to the village of Hongcun, but stopped to see a Qing Dynasty covered bridge:

The bridge had "beauty benches:"

Tamiko is on the bridge:

KSS

We were interested in the tea farm on the other side:

In the valley there are rice paddies, but after the last harvest they plant chrysanthemums for tea:

KSS

Steps to the garden plots:

KSS

On the hillsides are tea bushes:

These bushes have berries:

KSS

And flowers:

Nice stone wall:

A shallow river due to the dry season:

More tea bushes on the mountain side:

Continued in Hongcun.