Huangshan Emerald Valley Tingquan Xiaoyuan Homestay

Highly recommend this home stay for first night of a Huangshan mountain weekend adventure. Pros: very clean, comfortable bed and linens, good shower pressure. The host was very welcoming and considerate -in the morning, offered to drive me to the nearby transfer bus station from Tangkou to Huangshan Yungu cable car. Breakfast was simple but good -warm noodles with fried eggs. I travelled solo but noticed several of the rooms look perfect for families. I’ll share a few notes regarding visiting Huangshan: 1) easy 2 night weekend from Shanghai. I took high speed train at 5pm Friday, arrived Huangshan station around 8 pm. It’s a roughly 1 hr taxi or Didi ride to Tangkou area. This home stay is ~1 km outside of Tangkou tourist center (which I liked, more peaceful). 2) All entry into Huangshan scenic area must be via park bus (ie can not taxi directly to cable car station). As mentioned, host offered to drive to bus station which was very nice. 3) I find China loves complicated ticketing and queuing systems -this didn’t disappoint . At the bus station, you go to a booth to make a reservation for park entry. Then, another booths for cable car. After queuing and riding cable car, you buy another ticket, using reservation, at top of mountain for park entry. Good news, many of the counter staff in Huangshan speak English. 3) For second night, I stayed in park at Paiyun (good, will review separately). Paiyun, Xihai, and Beihai are all just minutes apart. All three appear of similar quality and service and are in great central location for hiking. 4) On Sunday morning, rose at 5:00 to view 5:40 sunrise at viewing platform just behind and up the hill from Paiyun (10 min climb). I was surprised at the number of early risers gathered. Breakfast at 6:30, returned to Yungu cable car for a solo ride back to bus. Bus to Tangkou. Taxi to Huangshan north station. Easily was able to make a 10:30 am departure for Shanghai, arriving at 1 pm. 5) this may sound like a short trip but it afforded climbing every peak and vista on the East side of Huangshan on Saturday at a fairly leisurely pace. Hope these random notes help! Huangshan is beautiful, worth the trip, and if you can manage climbing lots of steps it is easy to navigate. Cheers!

I can only recommend the accommodation to anyone. The room was large, clean and well equipped. The owners are very nice and super helpful. I visited the emerald valley and the yellow mountains from there. Both with the support of the host and it worked perfectly. Also the food on site is delicious. I would love to visit again.