Day 11 - Stairway to Heaven, Huashan

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They actually did it. Stel T, Sin and Ying Chu our guide got up at 3:00am to do the whole climb. The rest of us left the hotel at 8:00am, got the bus, and another bus, and then the cable car to the drop off point about 1,000m from the top of Huashan. I cannot imagine how exhausted the early birds are. The climb from the cable car drop off to the top was absolutely exhausting, so much so that our support car driver gave up half way. Stel and Sin did the first part of the climb in pitch black armed with an LED torch and rock climbing gloves. I've not seen their pictures yet, but they must be amazing. And by pure chance, the five of us actually met up at one of the five peaks at noon. The early birds had been climbing for 9 hours ! And to top it all off, they decided to do the cliffhanger experience at the top, which involved a harness, a tiny ledge, and clouds whisping into view. Kudos to the team for spending more than 13 hours in total on one of the most beautiful mountains on the planet. Each day seems better than the last.

Late afternoon we drove the 120km to Xian, the old capital of China. Cao Li and I arrived early and hit Muslim street, a colourful concoction of street foods vendors selling everything from goats feet to noodles on a stick.

Tomorrow, the Terracotta Warriors !!!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Huashan
This place is beautiful as we visited here in June 2010 but we did the cable car and then hiked. Huangshan in Anhui we did the entire hike thing.