Before leaving
Please let us all have a COVID-19 test the evening before we are leaving, so we don’t have to do that while we are in Huangshan!
Train options
The earliest subway starting around 6 am to Hangzhou East Station. It’s about 45 minutes. There are two trains going at 7:35 and 7:46, both arriving 9:29 am in Huangshan. Price is 120 RMB / 111 RMB. Next option would be 9:36, arriving 11:04. In Huangshan north we can take a bus to the mountain area (50 minutes, one bus every 40 minutes). Hiking will start around 11 am.
Bus options
Bus will be a 271 km trip from West-Station, 90 RMB, starting at 7:40 am. The bus takes 3 hours. So, arrival time will be 10:40. We will arrive in Tuxi (city center of Huangshan city). There are shuttle busses running frequently to the mountains. Takes about 1 hour, price will be 20 RMB each person. Hiking will start around noon.
Sunday
We make it to the hotspring in the mountains. It’s a hotel as well. Pricier than at the bottom, but much cheaper than at the peak. Room with two beds is 459 RMB, foreigners are accepted (Jean confirmed it + it’s written at their Qunar-introduction). Some simple food included. We can choose 2, 3 or 4 rooms, according to our preferences. They said we should arrive before 4:30 pm. The hotspring will be opened from 3 to 10 pm, for hotel guests it is a little cheaper (159 instead of 200 RMB).
Monday
Full hiking day. The cheapest hotel accepting foreigners in the mountain (though still close to the bottom) is 1298 RMB. Probably not worth. We can go hiking all day (starting from the hotspring in the mountains) visiting the famous spots. In the evening we could go down to stay in the youth hostel, which is 100-140 RMB a room, depending on room size (smallest 15 m²) or just spend another night in the hotspring hotel.
Tuesday
There is a shorter hiking road close to the youth hostel or around the hotspring. Guess we can leave early afternoon so we make it to our next COVID-19 test in Hangzhou. 🙂
Expenses:
14 (subway) + 240 (train) + max. 50 (busses from train station to the mountain and back) + 459 (hotspring hotel) + 159 (hotspring) + 140 (youth hostel) / 459 (hotspring hotel) = 1062 / 1381 RMB
not included: food, drinks, entrance fees, cable car