On the way back down I snapped the picture of these guys working on the roof of a new temple (or maybe a hotel that looks like a temple, in China you never can be too sure) and shortly afterward I was drinking cheap Chinese red wine mixed with Red Bull (yum!) with some of the cable car employees. They seemed freindly but I think they were basically trying to scam me. They initially offered to let me stay with them in their employee dorm, but when I found out that they wanted 110RMB for the bed (no mattress, no blankets, flithy pillow, no heating in the room and no washing facilities - a proper dorm bed in a real hostel goes for 20-25RMB!!) I bailed and found another option and snuck into the mountain top restaurant for the night. Sleeping in the restaurant I wasn't exactly warm, but was incredibly thankful I'd brought my camping sleeping mat with me so I slept at least a little. I woke before dawn, went up to the veiwing area in the hope of seeing a sunrise, but didn't it wasnt to be. I snapped a few cool photos in the dawn then started down the 7,000 stairs again. All in all the experience of Fanjingshan was much nicer than Huangshan - I was so happy to find silence on the top of a mountain in China untainted by tour groups and cell phone music. From Fanjingshan I took a sleeper train clear across Guizhou to see Caohai, the "Grass Sea" in the west of the province.
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