The Trip Where I Learned Onions Travels Like a "BEAST"

May 1st, International Labor Day, and all of China (and maybe the world?) has the day off.  Onions and I ended up heading to the famed Huangshan in Anhui province.  Usually, I am in charge of planning, but this time, I let Onions "drive."  And boy did he rise to my expectations of organization and planning!  An overnight train to Hefei and then a long bus ride to the base of Huangshan and then a late afternoon cable card ride to the mountain summit.

Being that it was a national Chinese holiday we were braced for huge crowds, but we were surprised by having the entire mountain basically to ourselves.

We did NOT expect to have any moment where we were alone.  But many times during that three hour afternoon before the sun set did we have quiet moments on the mountain and a chance to look at the stunning views without another person in sight!

We had the opportunity to have the mountain to "ourselves" because we decided to stay at the top of the mountain in one of the hotels, as shown in the bottom of the picture above.  We reserved a dorm room to share with four others....but we had the room to ourselves!  It was a perfect day on Huangshan!

The next morning we hiked DOWN into the West Canyon.

It was 5km of stairs all the way down! Thankfully there is a recent tram to bring us back up.

Looking back up the canyon from the bottom of West Canyon.

Here we are as we are working our way down the mountain.  You can see behind us the masses that were on the mountain that Friday.  We spent an hour in a crowded line at a point where people could go only single file.  Police were on the mountain to send line cutters back into line.  Thankfully we had the afternoon before so my patience for the crowds was infinite.

After we got off of Huangshan, our second planned stop was to the Hui village of Hongcun.

This is the famous bridge that everyone recognizes from Hongcun.  It was used in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

The Hui Villages of Southern Anhui are inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.  They are wealthy because the former residents were successful traders and sent money back to these towns to have grand homes built.

The buildings are known for the intricate woodwork.

I was thinking, change the roofs and put these villages on a hilltop and we could easily be in Italy!

I like the parenthetical addition to this famous saying!

So after our afternoon in Hongcun, Onions went into "beast mode."  I learned quite starkly on this trip that he, less so than even me, doesn't like to linger.  We see, we hang for a few minutes and it's on to the next site.  Here he is changing our plans to head to Hangzhou, which turns out was a few hours away.  Canceling train tickets and purchasing plane tickets...all on his phone!

We spent our second evening in the town of Tunxi, with its lively Lao Jie!

We had a fantastic dinner at a Hui restaurant and I ate dog meat for the first time!

Onions great travel planning found us a fantastic room in a hostel for cheap!!

Last stop, Hangzhou and the famed West Lake!

We rented bikes and rode around the lake. Turns out Onions has a college friend who lives here and here he's making plans to meet her!

We walked along the famous causeways and I even got Onions to sit on a bench for AN HOUR.  Unheard of!  Afterwards, dinner with his friend (by the way, I'm charming with all his friends) and then a late flight back to Beijing!