Huangshan Cultural Tour

On arrival at Huangshan city, guide will welcome you and drive directly to Yellow Mountain Scenic Area. Then take cable car at Yungu station up to the mountain top. Before reaching our Hotel, we take short hikes to some iconic viewing points for mountain shot including Beginning to Believe Peak, Black Tiger Pine, Stone Monkey Watching the Sea and Lion Peak. 

Yellow Mountain is not only a natural wonder, but also a cultural heritage site. Over 100 remains of temple, monasteries, pavilions and bridges are scattered over the mountain, showcasing interaction of man and nature since ancient times. Another treasure of the mountain are the stone inscriptions covering all type of calligraphy. We will appreciate many of them in these two days.

If weather permits, we can get up early to catch up a sunrise at lion peak or Danxia Peak where you can take good photos as the book shows. Back to the hotel for a good breakfast and today we will go further into the West Sea Grand Canyon to have a sky walk. The hiking trail is designed smartly for hikers at different levels. We will try the first ring route with total length about 3 km. The plunks are built on the cliff side with the bottom at some 400m deep below and the summit 200m above. It is doable for any who has decent physical condition but a bit strenuous through the stairs down and up. It is truly worth the time and efforts. You can expect the awe-inspiring views that will attract you to stop every few steps.

Back to the hotel for lunch. Then we move to the cable car station to descend the mountain and drive directly to hotel and wait for the visit in comfort the next day.

With a drive not far from our hotel, we arrive a less-visited ancient village, Nanping and immerse ourselves in the tranquility. The exquisite homes, ancestral halls and memorial archways also draw your attention when step into the villages.

Another highlight today is to experience the local life as that shown in Li Ziqi’s videos (you can find her on Youtube). We will step into the field and pick vegetables and cook with the householder. To fulfill the time in the afternoon, we will learn a disappearing art, bamboo weaving, from local elder villagers. Their crafts are rich in daily wares used for domestic and industrial use such as baskets, flower vases, floor mats, etc. 

Today we will first explore Hongcun village which is a very typical and shining pearl in Huangshan area. It has been on the list of USECO heritage sites and famous world-wide. It is not only attracted to visitors but also painters and photographers. You will find it full of art students in summer holiday.

Then we drive to Xiuning county for lunch and experience tofu making at Wanan ancient street. What is tofu? Tofu is an inexpensive and nourishing, protein-rich food, arguably the Chinese people’s most favorite delicacy. As common food, you may have already tried one of them like Mapo tofu, stinky tofu, and uncongealed tofu pudding. Xiuning is the hometown of tofu and nowhere is better to learn its culture than this place. You will experience the whole procedures from very beginning of picking soybeans.

Tonight, we will stay in a five-star hotel in Huangshan city

Tunxi Ancient Street was titled as “China's famous historical and cultural streets”, together with Confucius Street in Beijing and Pingjiang Road in Suzhou. It is full of treasures and contains vivid and rich memories of the past. We will explore the whole street and spend our time at two workshops. One is for a Hui-style fragrant pendant, a kind of solid fragrant used since ancient times in China. The inheritors absorb modern fashion and characteristics in fragrant pendant making to make this imperial recipe popular. Another is for writing brush. It is an interesting way to understand Chinese calligraphy.

Taking your own works in hand, we will leave for transport to next destination.