Yellow Mountain

Why This Tour?

Yel­low Moun­tain is one of those rare land­scapes where the con­di­tions are as impor­tant as the loca­tion itself.

Cloud, mist and chang­ing light con­tin­u­al­ly reveal and con­ceal the moun­tains. A view­point that appears rel­a­tive­ly ordi­nary at one moment can be com­plete­ly trans­formed a few min­utes lat­er. It rewards patience, obser­va­tion and respon­sive­ness – qual­i­ties that sit at the heart of good land­scape photography.

For this rea­son, the tour spends four and a half days on the moun­tain itself. We stay in four dif­fer­ent moun­tain hotels, allow­ing us to explore exten­sive­ly and, impor­tant­ly, to be close to dif­fer­ent pho­to­graph­ic loca­tions when the light and con­di­tions are at their most interesting.

The jour­ney to Huang­shan is equal­ly delib­er­ate. Shang­hai, West Lake and the ancient vil­lages pro­vide very dif­fer­ent pho­to­graph­ic envi­ron­ments before we enter the moun­tains, mak­ing this a jour­ney through con­tem­po­rary, his­toric and nat­ur­al Chi­na rather than sim­ply a vis­it to a sin­gle location.

Pho­to­graph­ic Opportunities

The tour offers an unusu­al­ly var­ied range of pho­to­graph­ic subjects.

We begin with the archi­tec­tur­al con­trasts of Shanghai’s Bund and the illu­mi­nat­ed city sky­line before mov­ing to the qui­eter land­scape of West Lake, with its water, tem­ples, pago­das, gar­dens and wil­low trees.

At Qiank­ou, Chengkan and Ling­shan, nar­row streets, water­ways, bridges, his­toric archi­tec­ture and every­day vil­lage life pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties to work more inti­mate­ly and respond to the cul­tur­al landscape.

Huang­shan then changes the pho­to­graph­ic empha­sis completely.

Sharp gran­ite peaks, iso­lat­ed Huang­shan pines, drift­ing mist, cloud and rapid­ly chang­ing moun­tain light cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for every­thing from expan­sive land­scape pho­tographs to much qui­eter and more inter­pre­tive images.

The land­scape does not always reveal itself imme­di­ate­ly. Learn­ing when to wait, when to move and when chang­ing con­di­tions have cre­at­ed some­thing worth respond­ing to becomes part of the experience.

Itin­er­ary

Your tour will begin with Michael Pilk­ing­ton and our guide meet­ing you at Shang­hai. You will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pho­to­graph this amaz­ing city and we will explore the ​‘Bund’ which is the water­front that hugs the west bank of the Huang­pu Riv­er and boasts archi­tec­ture in Baroque, Goth­ic, Romanesque, Chi­nese and Renais­sance styles. No vis­it to Shang­hai would be com­plete with­out pho­tograph­ing the city sky­line at night! On this night we stay in Shanghai.

After enjoy­ing the delights of Shang­hai leave the city lights behind and head for the world famous West Lake in Hangzhou. This beau­ti­ful fresh­wa­ter lake has influ­enced poets and painters through­out Chi­nese his­to­ry and is home to numer­ous tem­ples, pago­das and ornate gar­dens with wil­low trees. 

Our adven­ture con­tin­ues by mov­ing fur­ther towards the Yel­low Moun­tain and on route we vis­it two world famous ancient Chi­nese vil­lages, Qiank­ou, Xucun and Chengkan. These fas­ci­nat­ing vil­lages are an ancient com­plex of archi­tec­ture dat­ing back to the Ming (1368 ‑1644) and Qing (1644 ‑1911) dynas­ties. Both vil­lages are an intri­cate maze of tiny streets and alley­ways nev­er too far from water­ways with bridges lead­ing to beau­ti­ful gar­dens. This day will be an oppor­tu­ni­ty for you to immerse your­self into real Chi­nese ancient culture. 

We begin our next day with a short jour­ney to Ling­shan which is a Hui-style ancient vil­lage sur­round­ed by vast bam­boo groves in the imme­di­ate foothills of the Yel­low Moun­tain. Bam­boo is an inte­gral part of the vil­lagers lives and bam­boo crafts can be seen every­where. After lunch we make our way to the base of the Yel­low Moun­tain and take the cable car up to our first hotel up on the mountain.

Over the next four and a half days we will ded­i­cate our time entire­ly to pho­tograph­ing the stag­ger­ing­ly beau­ti­ful Huang­shan or ​‘Yel­low Moun­tain’ area. This is an area of high sharp gran­ite peaks jut­ting out of the mists and famous for its hardy Huang­shan Pines that grow pre­car­i­ous­ly into cliffs edges over 1500 meters up. From here we will be tak­ing our time and walk­ing the well paved moun­tain paths to some of the most unimag­in­able moun­tain scenery any­where in the world. Because our ele­va­tion the light and con­di­tions change con­stant­ly. The clouds arrive and move through cre­at­ing amaz­ing views of the moun­tains and trees. Dur­ing the evenings light mists veil the peaks cre­at­ing scenery that has influ­enced Chi­nese painters for centuries.

After our time of Yel­low Moun­tain, we take the cable car back down and make our way to Old Town Huang­shan to spend the evening immersed in this town’s ancient Chi­nese cul­ture with its lat­tice of nar­row streets lined with fas­ci­nat­ing shops and incred­i­ble restaurants. 

The fol­low­ing day we will be tak­en to the train sta­tion and expe­ri­ence the world-famous bul­let train back to Shang­hai ready to catch our return flights home 

This moun­tain area and World Her­itage Site cov­ers 154 square kilo­me­tres and the best known moun­tains are Lotus Peak, Bright Sum­mit Peak and Celes­tial Peak all of which reach just less than 2000 meters. We will explore the Grand Canyon and take the cable car above the mists to the sum­mit view­points of Begin­n­ing-to-Believe Peak, Pur­ple Cloud Peak and Tian­du Peak. Dur­ing our time on the moun­tain we will be stay­ing in four indi­vid­ual hotels on the tops of the moun­tains which will enable us to explore the area exten­sive­ly and be in the best van­tage points at the right time of day.

How You’ll Devel­op as a Photographer

Although this is a pho­tog­ra­phy tour rather than a for­mal retreat, learn­ing and pho­to­graph­ic devel­op­ment are inte­gral to the experience.

Michael will work along­side you in the field, help­ing with com­po­si­tion, tech­nique and the prac­ti­cal chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by the loca­tions, but also encour­ag­ing you to think beyond sim­ply record­ing what is in front of you.

In a land­scape such as Huang­shan, this can mean respond­ing quick­ly when con­di­tions change, but it can equal­ly mean slow­ing down and wait­ing for the land­scape to sim­pli­fy itself.

The aim is not to tell you what pho­tographs to make. It is to help you recog­nise pos­si­bil­i­ties, make more con­sid­ered deci­sions and devel­op greater con­fi­dence in your own pho­to­graph­ic response.

Our Aim

Our aim is that you return with much more than a col­lec­tion of pho­tographs of remark­able places.

We want you to expe­ri­ence and pho­to­graph a part of Chi­na that offers enor­mous visu­al vari­ety, while also hav­ing the time and sup­port to explore your own way of respond­ing to it.

Huang­shan in par­tic­u­lar pro­vides an excep­tion­al envi­ron­ment in which to explore atmos­phere, sim­pli­fi­ca­tion, tim­ing and per­son­al inter­pre­ta­tion – ideas that can con­tin­ue to influ­ence your pho­tog­ra­phy long after the tour has finished.

Is This Tour For You?

This tour is intend­ed for pho­tog­ra­phers who enjoy trav­el­ling specif­i­cal­ly to make pho­tographs and who are com­fort­able allow­ing con­di­tions to influ­ence what they photograph.

You do not need to be an advanced pho­tog­ra­ph­er. Michael will pro­vide guid­ance appro­pri­ate to your lev­el of expe­ri­ence through­out the tour.

You should, how­ev­er, enjoy spend­ing time out­doors and be com­fort­able walk­ing moun­tain paths while car­ry­ing your pho­to­graph­ic equip­ment. Huang­shan is moun­tain­ous ter­rain at ele­va­tions approach­ing 2,000 metres, although the prin­ci­pal paths are well paved and cable cars pro­vide access to parts of the mountain.

Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, you should be pre­pared to be patient. Some of the finest pho­to­graph­ic expe­ri­ences on Yel­low Moun­tain occur when we allow the land­scape and con­di­tions to dic­tate the pho­to­graph rather than arriv­ing with a pre­de­ter­mined image in mind.

Beyond the Destination

Yel­low Moun­tain is spec­tac­u­lar, but spec­ta­cle alone does not nec­es­sar­i­ly make mean­ing­ful photographs.

The con­stant­ly chang­ing rela­tion­ship between moun­tains, trees, mist and light encour­ages a more respon­sive approach to land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy. Some­times the chal­lenge will be decid­ing what to include; at oth­er times it will be recog­nis­ing what can be left out.

We hope that you leave Chi­na not only with pho­tographs of an extra­or­di­nary land­scape, but with a greater abil­i­ty to observe, wait and respond – and with ideas that you can take into your pho­tog­ra­phy wher­ev­er you work next.