The hook
The granite peaks that Chinese landscape painting has drawn for a thousand years: jagged summits, gnarled pines rooted in bare rock, and a "sea of clouds" that pools in the valleys and leaves the tops floating.
01Why it's worth it
Huangshan, the Yellow Mountains of Anhui, is the archetype of the Chinese mountain, the scene behind countless scroll paintings and the reason there's an old saying travellers still repeat: see the five sacred mountains and you needn't see other mountains, but see Huangshan and you needn't see the five. The appeal is a specific combination: sharp granite spires, twisted Huangshan pines growing straight out of the stone, hot springs below, and, on the right morning, a sea of cloud that turns the peaks into islands. It is a climb, either up thousands of stone steps or via cable car, and the classic way to do it is to sleep in a summit hotel so you're in place for sunrise over the clouds. It is popular and can be busy, and weather is a gamble (the cloud sea needs the right conditions), but on a good day it is one of the most beautiful mountains anywhere.
02How to experience it
Take the cable car or climb up, and, crucially, stay overnight at a summit lodge so you catch sunrise and beat the day-trippers to the best viewpoints (Bright Summit, the Flying Rock, Lotus Peak). Walk the ridge trails between the named pines and pillars. Go in spring or autumn, pack warm and waterproof, and accept that the cloud sea is a matter of luck.
From the locals
The old line does the summing up, and travellers still quote it verbatim: "if you go to five mountains in China, you've seen them all," one relayed being told on the ground, "if you go to Huangshan, you've seen the five."