I am completely exhausted after the long day we had!!! I woke up at 4:30am this morning so we could go climb Huashan Mountain, which is about 120 kilometers east of Xi'an. Here's a snippet about the mountain:
"Huashan (Hua means brilliant, Chinese, or flowery; shan means mountain) is one of the five sacred Taoist mountains in China. Huashan boasts a lot of religious sites: Taoist temples, pavilions, and engraved scriptures are scattered over the mountain. Hua Mountain is well-known for its sheer cliffs and plunging ravines. It is known as "the most precipitous mountain under heaven" and is probably the most dangerous mountain in the world frequented by hikers. There are five peaks that make up the mountain: Cloud Terrace Peak (North Peak, 1613m), Jade Maiden Peak (Central Peak, 2042m), Sunrise Peak (East Peak, 2100m), Lotus Peak (West Peak, 2038m) and Landing Wild Goose Peak (South Peak, 2160m). "
We got to the mountain around 7:30am so we could start climbing it before it got really hot. Mimi wasn't feeling well and decided to stay at the bottom of the mountain with her mom, so it was just Karen (Mimi's classmate) and me that climbed the mountain. This mountain is really high, so we took a cable car to a certain point and then started climbing the mountain. Supposedly, to hit all 5 peaks, you need to spend 2 days on the mountain. There are stairs that lead you up the mountain, but they can be very steep and you have to hang onto the chains on the side to keep from falling (thank goodness I bought some gloves). We only climbed for an hour before Karen got tired and didn't want climb anymore...but I was determined to make it to at least one peak. I left her at a rest point and continued on my own up the mountain. Even with the stairs, the climb was very difficult and tiring...I had to constantly stop to take breaks (I need to get back into exercising!). I didn't know much about the mountain, so when I got to Wu Yun Peak, I thought I'd reached the top of one of the peaks. I was soooooo wrong. I guess Wu Yun is one of the smaller peaks...and I saw some more stairs leading up. I kept following the stairs until I got to Immortal Palm Cliff and again was disappointed that it wasn't one of the 5 peaks. I didn't know what to expect or how much longer till I reached a peak, so I just kept going and eventually got to Central Peak (this is one of the 5 peaks, but I didn't know until later). By this time, I was exhausted and made a decision to go back down...I'd been hiking 3 hours already and the stairs just kept going...I hadn't eaten anything all morning and it was getting to be lunchtime. Also, I'd been gone for awhile, so I'm sure Karen was getting worried about me. I was able to get some expensive cold water on the mountain for 6 yuan to refuel (I can get it normally for 1 yuan). I found out later why it was so expensive...it's to cover the cost of having workmen carry up to 50 kilos of stuff on their shoulders up the mountain!!! I saw those workmen and wow, that looks like such a tough job and they do it twice a day!!! There was a 74 year old man that was still doing it and some others made it fun by singing or playing the flute. With the heat and the climb, I am so amazed they can do it!!!
As I was starting my trip back down, I met a Chinese lady (Miranda) who spoke some English. She had been hiking on the mountain since 9am the previous day and spent the night on the mountain. She was explaining to me if I had kept climbing, it would have been too dangerous for me since I was alone. No worries...I had already made my mind to go back down!!! She was headed down the same way I was...so we kept each other company. I'm so impressed by Miranda...she'd actually started the climb from the bottom of the mountain!!! I don't think I could've done it...my legs were already shaking after 3 hours and it felt like mush!!! Hers were hurting her too, but when we reached the cable cars, she decided to walk the rest of the way down (the cable cars were too expensive for her). We met up with Karen along the way and poor Karen was concerned that I had gotten lost. I guess she doesn't realize that I can still take care of myself even though I don't speak the language!!! :) I think I spent about 4.5 hours climbing that mountain today....I was ready for food and a nap!!!
I only got food though. We had a great meal at a restaurant nearby (I ate too much again) and then headed to the Terra-Cotta Army (which I thought we were doing the next day). I was soooo tired...I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I should have. No one else had done the 4.5 hours on the mountain, so they had more energy. I just walked around the museum and took some pictures. The museum isn't as big as I imagined. There are 3 pits and an exhibition hall. It was really cool to see the warriors and horses...to think that there are over 8000 soldiers that were buried...I wonder how much longer they will have to keep excavating the site?!??!
BTW...the quality of some of the pics are really bad (so sorry about that!). I brought my big nikon SLR to Asia, but it's so big to carry around (esp. when I'm also carrying another big bag of other stuff) that I've been leaving it at the hotel/house. Most of these pics are taken with my smaller digital...I would've have liked taking my big nikon for the terra-cotta army, I just didn't know we were going right after the mountain! :)
