Huihanggudao is an ancient trail used by the merchants from Zhejiang region to Anhui region. I started off the hike from the Zhejiang side. You can buy the walking stick from the villagers for RMB 2 at the start of the trail. This walking stick became my saviour as it really aided my hike. The trail was quite easy to follow. It was only difficult that day because of the light rain throughout the day. You do not have to carry much food and water (keeping your hiking gear light) as there are plenty of stalls along route where you can buy and also take a rest. The trail is about 16km and takes around 5-6 hrs to complete depending on your stamina. The sceneries along the way are beautiful and I took plenty of pictures. Oct is a great month to hike as the weather is cooling.

We decided to do this hike during Qingming festival weekend, hoping it wouldn't be as packed as many famous sites are in China during holidays. We weren't disappointed. While there were plenty of bodies during the first couple of kilometers, it was never unbearable and petered out around when the path changed from stone to dirt. We started at the Anhui side in Jixi and hiked over to the eastern gate in Zhejiang. Tickets to get into the park were 77 yuan per adult and 42 for kids 1.2 to 1.4 meters. If you go west to east, there's a lot more uphill than when going east to west, and some of the climbs are pretty impressively steep, making for a hot sweaty walk in the sun. The scenery is spectacular, though. There are quite a few stalls selling snacks on the way up, and a few places that looked like they probably could cook up actually meals. It would have been fun to slow down a bit to explore some of the villages we passed through and maybe camp up on Lantian Ao or stay in one of the guesthouses on the way, but we only had time to do the whole 12+km route in a single day instead of splitting it into two. The route is pretty well marked, but there were a few points where we were happy to have access to an offline map.