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Our family will be traveling this summer to Shanghai, China; and Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. We plan to visit Yellow Mountain; a railway trip away from Shanghai. I understand Yellow Mountain gets 15 million visitors a year compared to Yosemite at 3.5 million visitors. So we shouldn't be too lonely there! Haha! But my question to you all: do you recommend any class 2 hikes/climbs within 100 miles of the above three cities? Thanks in advance for any ideas. Keep in mind this is a family deal, so nothing to wild and crazy.

Scott

Yellow Mountain is a tourist mountain. But the scenery is amazing so it is still highly worth a visit. You may find some class 3 sections without venturing off the sidewalk. The stairs can get pretty steep. For a short visit and first time to Shanghai, Yellow Mountain is a good choice for a nature get-away.

When I went to Melbourne I went to the Snowy Mountains in August. There should be a bit of snow this time of year.

I have heard good things about a couple of places which (I think is not too far from Huangshan Mountain) but accessible from Shanghai

Have a look at Anji
http://xcapeshanghai.com/

and also Moganshan
http://www.nakedretreats.cn/ Top End
http://moganshanhouse23.com/ Middle end

And a review from NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/trave ... gewanted=1

Just completed three day trip to Yellow Mountain (Mt Huangshan) and had a wonderful time with family. We took the Cloud Valley cableway into the mountains and stayed at the North Sea Guest House. Since I did not see any mountain roads in this remote area, my first question was how are food and supplies transported to these remote hotels. The answer is that transportation is by local laborers who use a "T" shaped system made from bamboo suspended across their shoulders with short ropes dangling to bottled water, propane tanks, rice, etc. Are you kidding? These guys don't have an ounce of fat on their bodies. Wow!

More later,
Scott

Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) is about five hours from Shanghai, China by tour bus. The pictures below show porters carrying food and supplies to remote restaurants and hotels up into the mountains. These guys are incredible shape to do this work. Tourists have the option of hiking up mountain or taking a cable-car. Not sure why food is not transported part way up mountain by cable-car?

Interesting. It looks like they carry that extra stick to hold the load during rest stops. I suspect someone is saving money by using the porters instead of the cable cars.

Picture of Sam in front of Yiping Peak. I could see folks at the summit, but our guide did not venture in that direction.

This is where we stayed for one night (North Sea Guest House) If I go to Yellow Mountain again I would stay here for four nights and go on day hikes sans guide. Yin speaks Mandarin Chinese, so I have my own interpreter.

Wife Yin trying out local transportation. One older women in our party became tired during day hike, so two locals transported her in this type of chair up some steep stone steps.