I survived! From experiencing crazy bus drivers, freezing our butts off up a mountain and getting dropped off at unknown destinations, my experience of hiking up Hua Shan mountain was a great trip.
Just to add on from Christie's entry we have been in Xi'An for about 5 days, and poor Christie has been crook, and resting in bed for most of it. I was keen to hike up one of the local sacred Chinese mountains, Hua Shan, at just over 2100m. I decided to do what any caring bloke would do - leave Christie to get better by herself and go adventuring!
It started late Monday night, I was trying to organise it, and one of the guys working here (an old Korean bloke) was contemplating doing the hike with me (and he spoke Chinese so the organisation would be much easier!). Through broken English, we managed to agree to meet for breakfast where he would give me a decision as to whether he would join me...
Well, after not a lot of sleep due to the anticipation, my morning excitement was cut short as he decided that he wouldn't end up coming. The good thing about staying in hostels is that there are lots of like minded travellers and it wasn't long before I learned that another British couple (Dan & Louise) had planned to do the hike the same day. Needless to say we caught up, found another Canadian adventurer (Jason)and the four of us set off for the mountain, around lunch time.
My first bus trip, just to the bus station was an interesting trip. On the roads in China, you just push your way towards where you want to go and others must give way in order not to hit you. Imagine a bus doing that... suddenly swerving right across three lanes...
We then took a minibus for about 1.5 hours to get to the mountain and started our walk. It wasn't long before we reached the scenery. A very nice change from all the city life in China. And clean flowing water! The mountains were surrounded by fog and it was quite beautiful as we started our ascent up many stairs. The climb started gradually and we came across steps cut into the cliffs leading up to a doorway carved into the rock. Someone must be living in these places! Although it must be a brave postman to deliver any mail to them.
The trail slowly steepened and yes, our ascent slowed. It was also a battle against time, as the steepest part lay ahead, but not everyone had torches and we had to reach the top before dark to find somewhere to stay.
The stairs got steeper, and then there was the long narrow climbs up that seemed to go forever, where you had to hang on to the chain rail and not look down.
Well to cut shorten the hike for you all, we made it to the North peak just on dark, after coming across a few characters along the way. One particular bloke was playing the flute and carrying on, posing for our camera. He ended up writing something down on paper for us. It was all in Chinese and none of us had a clue what it said... maybe one day we will get the translation.
We were all pretty tired, taking about 3.5 hours up some pretty steep climbs. After a bit of haggling we got into a place right on top of the ridge. It was amazing to look off the balcony to see the mountain tops, with fog below. Although it was cold. Very cold. The room was ok, but the walk down the many stairs to the toilet was something we didn't welcome and the sanitary conditions of the toilets isn't something i care to elaborate on.
We enjoyed a hot meal and drank a few cups of hot tea to help warm ourselves before getting an early night.
The Next day. Up at 4.30am. We were heading to the East peak, another hike of probably 1.5 hours up some steep and narrow terrain. Apparently, some keen people start around 11pm at the bottom and hike up at night to see the sun rise over the clouds. Thankfully, they had lights on in the dangerous places, so the rest of the group without decent torches didn't fall off the edges!
After a short climb, we were on some very interesting ridges. There was a narrow ridge climb that was on a slope of about 70 degrees. The edges dropped off on both sides down the mountain, so to look down, left or right, you felt very exposed. Ok, slightly freaky, but we managed it. Toward the top of the hike, there were pockets of snow lying around, and it was freezing. We finally made the east peak, at around 2100m before sunrise. We rugged up, got the cameras ready and waited.... and waited...
Bloody fog! Our anticipated sun rising over the clouds morning was covered in fog! Never mind, the views were still pretty spectacular and it was a great sense of achievement, considering we made it with only Chinese script to indicate where we were.
We spent some time soaking in the views before making our way back down to the north peak. We opted for the cable car on the way down. It was incredibly steep, but an awesome view to see what we hiked up the previous day.
Just to add to the adventure, we decided to walk from the cable car to the bus station as the mini bus seemed expensive (10 Yuan = $1.60). After the hour walk, we did realise what idiots we were and how aclimatised to the local currency we were becoming.
We caught a cab the last stretch which we thought was only a few minutes walk, but would have taken us another hour... Lucky!
We found a bus back to Xi'an and haggled them for the price, only to realise that we actually got it less that the Chinese people already on the bus. And that caused some commotion. Oops. Probably just to get us back, the bus terminated and we got off... Where the **** are we?
Pulling out a map and trying to get locals to understand what we wanted, we found out we were just outside of town, with probably a few minutes bus ride into the centre. Again the challenge was on to find out what bus we had to catch to get to the centre, and Dan & Louise did a great job to decipher the locals and work out the buses.
The bus eventually came and we were sandwiched onto the most packed bus I have seen. Needless to say, at each stop along the way more people sandwiched in and were about 3 thick across the isle standing.
Finally we made it, and I got to see Christie again! :) I think she was happy to see me, even though I was overdue for a shower.
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