By Johnmango
Copied from Fodors
We left Shanghai on a Thursday evening and returned to Shanghai on Saturday evening.

The first evening we arrived in Tunxi fairly late, and stayed at the International Hotel at Tunxi. The hotel was recently renovated as evidenced from the strong solvent smell from the paint and tile glue in the hotel lobby. Friday morning at 7:30 am the driver picked us up and we arrived at the Eastern slope Telpher station at 9 am.

We arrived at Beihai (North Sea) Hotel at around 11am, checked in and did a little hiking in the afternoon around the east side of the mountain, and returned to the hotel for dinner.

The next morning on Friday, we got up at 4:30am to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was raining so we couldn't see through the thick mist. Then we spent the day hiking around the west side of the mountain.

On the third day we got up leisurely and walked back from the Beihai Hotel to the East cable car around 10:30 am - waited for about an hour and descended the mountain, where our driver was waiting for us. We spent the afternoon doing a bit of sightseeing around Huangshan, and returned to Shanghai in the evening.

- I picked mid-week because it will be very crowded in the weekend.

- we originally wanted to descend the west side of the mountain; but one of our member's knee gave out and she could not walk down the deep stairs of the west side; so we had to change the original plan and came down the east side - same side we went up the mountain.

- if you are an avid hiker, I would spend an extra day exploring the new Xihai (West Sea) White Cloud Stream Scenic Area. The scenery is there is spectacular; but if you just want a taste of Huangshan and a bit of sightseeing, spending 1.5 days like we did up at the peak area should suffice.

- Beihai Hotel is an OK hotel, regardless of some very negative review at Tripadvisor. The breakfast is also OK with fairly good selection of items. I would not call it a 3-star hotel, but of course there is no real criteria of giving oneself whatever number of stars. Remember that there are only a very limited number of hotels at the peak: for me it is either the Shilin, Beihai, and the Xihai. They are all very similar hotels. The Beihai has the advantage of closest to the sunrise-watching pavilion: just a 5-10 minute walk. You don't want to walk too far at 4:30am in the morning in the dark.

- Just remember that if you go, be sure to bring (1) a small flashlight, and (2) hiking pole. There are wooden poles for sale at the peak hotels but we brought our own. If you bring the poles make sure that they are collapsible to fit inside your backpack. Otherwise you will have to check your poles. Our poles were too long to fit in the backpack and we were not allowed to carry them onto the plane "ails", so we had to put them in our back pack, put the whole thing in a large plastic bag and checked them in as luggage.

- Also, unless you are super-resourceful, I would advice having a travel agent getting the airline tickets and provide you with a driver. That way you do not have to figure out how to get from Tunxi to Huangshan gate, and how to get from the gate to the airport. We had a driver/van at our disposal and it was way more comfortable than taking the shuttle bus as it seemed too complicated to shift the different buses. Besides, the shuttle bus runs between the entrance and different check-points of the hiking or cable services, therefore I strongly suggest you take your private car so as to avoid reaching a wrong spot on the top, which means you have to walk several hours more to your reserved hotel.