Not much for skiing, but China has mountains worth visiting.

Business brings me to China once or twice a year. Knowing I would be visiting very close to the Huangshan Mountain region, I decided the team would spend two days exploring this beautiful area made famous by artists and film makers.

Huangshan Mountain is a four hour road trip from Shanghai. The area was difficult to access until this year. Now, with the help of highly engineered highways, the region is very accessible. We were expecting basic accommodations, but China is quickly becoming wealthy and world class in every way. More like Park City than Katmandu.

Huangshan is the most famous of the mountainous areas in Eastern China. It will never offer skiing. The weather is more tropical than alpine. The mountains are often cloaked in fog and rain. We were spared the rain, but fog limited the picture taking somewhat.

More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangshan_Mountains

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http://www.business-in-asia.com/skichina.html

Still pretty limited from my understanding, which fits with my observations as I saw a few groups of rich Chinese people when I was in Switzerland. I doubt they would bother going such a great distance if the skiing in China were really great.

Plus China is a communist country, despite the liberalized economies on the coasts, so it would be surprising if major skiing developed in such a short time. Only recently are the interior areas really opening up to economic progress, and lots of bribes and such are probably still required to get things done. Also the people in those areas don't have the financial resources to justify a big ski resort, and the people in the urban areas have no huge tradition of skiing. Kind of a chicken and egg scenario, but once it picks up the northern mountains do offer the kind of conditions which could foster a nice ski industry. I know there's some pretty good amounts of snow up there, cuz the Japs employed alpine divisions in that area during WW2.

They fed you the story to make you feel special!

I visited Huangshan in the 80's and it's hardly "difficult to access". Herds of Chinese (thousands) each day walk up the mountain. The tram, build in the late 80 (or early 90?), made the trip possible for even the unfit.

Huangshan is "famous" exactly for its cloud and fog. So you got the best condition for its fame and you wish it's otherwise?

I love the last photo, with the perfect reflection of the traditional houses on the pond.

I'm sure I have seen that place in a movie.

Um, whats for dinner? The beer looks good. Not so sure about everything else.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was shot in this area, including the village pictured :.

The protean on the plate is mostly tofu, one smelled like roquefort cheese.

The good news is that I lost weight : just in time for ski season.

Michael