9 mountains - 11.6.11 (Day 25 - Hiking to the peak of Mt Jiuhua)

I remembered very clearly that I had switched off the TV but I was awaken at 2:30am by a match-making TV program that I had seen before!! This was too real to be a dream either. I just off the TV again and went back to sleep, too sleepy to think of anything spooky!

At 5am, my alarm rang. But the heavy rain outside didn't encourage me to wake up at all. Eventually I struggled up around one hour later.

The rain never seemed to die off at all. I had to gear up my poncho.

Hiking up to the trail

A waterfall along the main road

After some navigation from the local, I started of my hike up around 6:40am. First I asked the food stall owner. Then, I confirmed again with the souvenir shop owner. Both were suggesting not to walk up because it was a very long walk of 15km!! They suggested to take the free bus to the cable station and hike up from there. But according to the map and the guide book, I should be able to start from Jiuhua street, which was already half way up the mountain.

A "friend" I met at the road side.

Rainy view from the side road.

I checked out the sign and it mentioned 7km to the peak. My confidence was boosted. I followed the main road up and reached where the bus stops about an hour later. The view on my right along the way was great. But the rain was making it very difficult to snap a shot.

Very very old tree at the mid point of the hike!

Reaching the mid point rest
area

After the main road, it was stones steps all the way up, passing through many temples and restaurants. It was only 4km hike up from 800m to 1301m a.s.l. but I was caught catching my breath numerous times. After 6 slack days at Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Jiuhua Shan made me looked like a novice once again!! The wet weather was making it worse. That why they said cheap stuff ain't good stuff. My poncho seemed to have holes everywhere that I was soaked like a sponge!! I even doubted my Goretex pant I bought at Chengdu because my lower body was wet too!!

Heaven Bridge Temple

Devotees with flower head
bands

After 3 and half hours, I finally reached the peak! And the crowd was huge. I noticed some worshipers wore flowers band on their head for their prayers.

Did not stay for long because there was nothing much to see with such heavy mist in the rain!

View from the Heaven Bridge Temple

I started to descend at 10:07am but was too hungry to continue and stopped for breakfast near the peak. The rmb30 meal for an instant noodle and a Red Bull was daylight robbery!

I was basically on the exact track that I came up. The rain stopped very briefly when I reached the bus stop about 4km away from town.

Around 12:50pm, I was at the Jiuhua town and took the free shuttle to the long distance bus station downhill.

Path to the temple main hall

I was just on time to catch the last bus to Wuhu at 1:30pm. There were only 7 of us in the bus. Along the way, the bus picked up more passengers. Exactly 3 hours later, we reached the Wuhu train station! I walked over to get my ticket to Ningbo where I was supposingly able to get a ferry transfer to Putuoshan, the last stop of my trip!

The queue was short. I was done in minutes. Stink like a toilet bowl, I couldn't wait to get my shower. I walked over to a hotel and noticed rmb50 for 2 hours rest. I checked the next door. It was 4 hours for the same price!! I took the offer and regretted. The bed wasn't really clean. The staff offered a towel but I ended up using mine instead. Luckily the hot water was still ok to have a decent shower.

Awaken!

After that, I was very hungry and had some local food at a restaurant nearby. Nothing fancy at all.

I realized I hurt my right knees. I could hardly walk without limping slightly. I went to look for a foot massage and found a huge place!

The 70minutes session was not too bad for rmb58! With hot tea and some fruits, you could also stayed as long as you like to rest.

I decided to walk back instead. The hotel staff chased me out half an hour earlier!! I walked over to the Internet cafe but was rejected for the first time in China for not having an identity card!! I walked to another closer to the train station and almost got rejected although I explained that I was a foreigner. Luckily another staff managed to sort things out and gave me a password as usual in other outlets. Spent the next two hours checking emails and chit chatting. At 10, I walked over to the station and waited to board the train at 11pm.

Today, I was a lucky man to have three girls sharing with me in the 4-berth coach!!

After updating my blog for a while, I slept an hour later.