Xi'an and Hua Shan

Hua Shan 华山

 [Okay, so I know last time I said that every post won't be as long-winded as the first, but it looks like I was wrong. Also, this post is filled with pictures because it was too beautiful and incredible to explain with just words. Enjoy!]

Who knows if these really work...

After our first week of classes, and realizing how much work we have for our Chinese studies, a few friends and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Xi’an. It took hours online, on the phone, and at the airlines’ storefront, but we finally got our tickets, and Friday morning, we went to the airport and flew to Xi’an. Transportation challenges were a running theme throughout the trip, which only made the outcome all the more rewarding. When we arrived, we immediately unpacked facemasks, as the smog was the worst we’d seen so far in China. Somehow our group of 10 people (6 girls, 4 guys) ended up only having 3 Chinese speakers, which meant I got a lot of speaking practice. We split up into taxis and after our cab drivers all got lost looking for the hostel, we eventually arrived at Seven Sages Hostel, unpacked into our big 10 person room, went to dinner, had second dinner, stocked up on water and snacks, and went to sleep.

Base of the mountain. Smog!

 Saturday, we had some local street food for breakfast and loaded into the van we hired to head to Hua Shan（华山）, one of China’s Five Great Mountains. The base of the mountain was daunting and exciting, but the smog was so thick we could barely see the rest of the mountain. At 11:00 we began the hike and didn’t take long for us to start shedding layers. The walk up the mountain had a surprising number of little stores along the way. As we climbed higher, the smog disappeared, the blue sky peaked out, and the air was exponentially fresher.

Along the way up, we also encountered funny signs, and tons of locks. It is a tradition for couples to engrave their names on locks and then attach them to chains on the mountain, as a symbol of their everlasting love (similar to that bridge in France, except this tradition is all over the mountain). 

 

The hike itself was extremely strenuous and consisted of thousands of little steps that left us breathing as hard as our pollution covered lungs could handle. We climbed up stairs for 3.5 hours, sometimes at a near vertical angle, to reach the North Peak. It was undoubtedly the hardest hike of my life, yet it was also the most fulfilling and beautiful upon reaching the top. The mountains were endless and strikingly unreal. Pictures and words cannot adequately describe the view, but I will say that absolutely justified over 5 hours of near vertical climbing and aching calves.

 

From the North Peak, we continued the stairs to South Peak, the highest peak of Hua Shan at over 7,000 feet. It was getting late and our van driver was getting angry, but there was no way I was going to hike all the way to the top of Hua Shan without crossing the plank walk off my bucket list. There were a surprising number of old people and women wearing platform shoes on this part of the hike, but they all took the cable cars to the top and just traveled between peaks. 

Sally, Sarahann, Kim, and I somehow got far ahead of the rest of the group (who ended up missing a turn and just going back to the van) and finally made it to the plank walk. We harnessed up and climbed down a scary ladder to the walkway. Two planks attached to the side of the mountain and a harness was the only thing holding us up. We inched across the planks, clipping our carabiners along the way. Midway through I turned around, leaned against the mountain, and took it all in. The view was incredible. It was slightly nerve-racking and entirely gorgeous. We were there around 6:00 pm so the sun was low in the sky and the air was sharp. The mountains seemed to go on for miles and the colors were amazing. At the end of the walk was a small temple with incense burning. It was definitely one of the top experiences of my life and made every challenge along the way totally worth it.

  

Breathtaking!

 
The next day, I went to see the Terracotta soldiers（兵马俑）. It was really cool and fascinating to see such a huge army made for the afterlife. Some of us hired a tour guide who was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of interesting things about the emperor, the Qin dynasty, and obviously the soldiers. We were also lucky because the farmer, who first discovered the buried army on his property, was there that day signing books. I never realized the extent of the Terracotta warriors. The army took about 40 years to build and began when the emperor was only 13. There are many pits of statues with soldiers, generals, and commanders, and each statue is different from the others.

Later that day, before our flight home, we wandered around (and got slightly lost) in Xi’an. We walked through the Muslim Quarter and had a delicious last dinner as a group before running around the city again to find a cab and head to the airport. We actually began to run out of time and no taxis were stopping, until one came over with a guy already in it. I bargained with him for a good price and to get us there fast (my Chinese language skills really benefitted with all these drivers). Four of us squeezed in the back seat and we made it to the airport with time to spare. We went home to return to classes and  tests, but beaming with happiness from our awesome weekend.