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My friend Jill, who recently did a trip to Asia, instructed me that at one point in China I must do a trek. Looking through the China guide books I decided up Mount Huashan, one of the five Sacred Mountains of China, given that it was relatively close to the city of Xian that I am staying in. Similar to yesterday's trip to the terracottas, the adventure began with finding the right bus. Approaching the tour bus #1, I was bombarded with other people telling me; "take local bus, cheap, cheap" or "I take you in my own car, cheap, cheap". I fought my way onto Tour bus #1. I boarded the bus at 8am and it was just over a two hour ride to the mountain. It surprised me that there were no other caucasians on the bus, all chinese, none of whom appeared equipped to climb a mountain. The Chinese tour buses like to play American music videos on the onscreen tv, but the audio is insanely bad karaoke like chinese singing. Like Snoop Dog doing his thing and then a chinese love ballad-esque song playing, a little odd. It provided some entertainment for the first 15 minutes and
then I retreated to a book.
Hmmm... side note.... I remembered a plethera of commercials on the other tour bus for skin whitening cream. Girls in China are obsessed with porcelain white skin. I have heard that a girls beauty is judged heavily on how white they are. They all love to comment on how white I am and touch my face in awww. I have been warned by other travellers that all the sunscreen here contains skin whiteners. I know sun isn't healthy for your skin, but a good dose of bleach cant exactly be that great either. The girls here are always completely covered head to toe even in the extreme heat. Okay back to the mountain....
When we arrived at the Mountain, people all approached a ticket booth, and so I followed. I stood behind a bunch of women and their boyfriends, the women all dressed in their best 'hiking' high heels and sporting lovely tea time straw hats. When I approached the agent, I found out within a few minutes of broken english babbling that all these people were simply buying tickets to board another mini tour bus that would take them on a tour of
the mountain. Are you serious? You travelled 2 hours on a bus, to board another bus for 8 hours to return to the base and board another bus home for 2 hours? A mountain through a glass bus window... might as well have bought a postcard. When I stated that I desired to climb the mountain, they looked at me like I was a little crazy. I purchased a map of the mountain and found out that you could climb the mountain from another entrance. Leaving all my asian friends behind, I hiked down the local road in search of a cab to take me to the other entrance. I had no idea how far the other entrance was, so I was completely at the mercy of the cab driver when he said 10 Yuan. Turns out it was 3 minutes down the road. On the way back to meet the bus I would bargain lower. Now I was at the base of the mountain.
Beautiful gardens and temple like buildings lined the base of the mountain. Many vendors were selling incense sticks, though I didn't put together the reason why until I was well up the trail. It was
a bit of a maze to find my way into the main entrance of the hiking trail, proceeding through many different small temples with burning incense and elderly people praying. Looking at their faces through the fragrant smoke, you could sense a spirtual presence dancing in the room. About twenty minutes up the path, that followed the line of a river of rushing water descending from the mountain top, there was an admission booth. All foreigners had to pay 100 Yuan (about 15 dollars) and log in with your name, nationality and passport information. A little itimidating when it is requested in broken english and the only thought is that they think there is a chance you may get lost, injured or die. And no I am not be melodramatic, there are cautionary notes on the map itself saying that people die on the steep cliffs of the mountain trail every year.
The trail began with stone walk ways fairly wide and a pretty marginal gradient. "I got this, no problem" I thought to myself. Then it got steeper, and steeper. I'm talking greater than 45 degree incline. Looking back the entrance to the mountain quickly faded into the clouds.
Every 20 minutes or so of hiking there was a vendor on the side of the trail selling fruit, cucumbers and cold drinks. I resisted temptation and pushed on. The hike got steeper and the trail turned into jagged stepping stones. The sun was hot, beating down through the trees. Every once and a while there were temples set up. Some were obvious and stood right along the path, while others were hidden down small paths. In some cases there were small caves carved out of the stone cliffs which contained sculptures of demons. In front of the altars at the base of the demons one could say a prayer and light an incense stick to mark ones prayer / offering. About two and a half hours of climbing the path turned into extreme vertical climbs of small, very small steps (please recall the size of my enormous feet). I side stepped up the mountain trying to maintain balance. Then the path became straight vertical climbs with foot hold chunked out of the side of the stone cliffs and chains to hold onto. The chains were suspended only two feet off the ground and were definitely not designed with a 5'10" person in mind. At some points I felt like I was crawling. To my amazement, at several points in the climb I was passed by Chinese 'porters' I shall call them, who had large bamboo bars across the back of their necks with supplies, beverages etc perfectly balances on each side. It was quite amazing to see them maneuver up this insane trail that I was struggling to complete just lugging my own weight. After a solid hour and a half of climbing ridiculously steep stairs / chain ladders I decided I had to set a point where I was going to turn around and begin my descent. Some people hike to the top and stay over night but I had a bus to catch and had already been climbing for 4 hours. There was one point in the path that it appeared a lot of people turned around. Thousands of small heart shaped locks were attached to the hand chains of the trail. Couples buy these locks, hike to the top (or whatever one deems to be their top) and locks the lock to the chain and throws the key into the river that at this height is more of a waterfall gushing down the mountainside. It is said that this practice binds the two of you together in love forever. I considered buying a lock and dedicating it to the love I have for myself, but it all seemed way too cliche self-helpish. And... there were better things to spend my money on... RED BULL. By the time I reached my person plateau and took some crazy pictures of the mountain valley below, my legs were shaking, literally. The Red Bull eliminated the dizziness in my head and me and my shaky legs began my descent.
On the way down I ran into a vendor where there was this insanely content cat sleeping on the path under a sun umbrella. Cats that I have run into in China seem insanely content. See the picture, it was priceless. It looked like it could have been a picture from a cafe in Paris. The descent was very rewarding. I recognized landmarks and knew that the bottom was getting closer and closer. At one point I climbed down to the river and took my shoes off, cooling off my feet in the water. All in all, the pictures definitely do not do it justice. It was a spectacular experience. Unexpectedly, during the trek I was able to sort through some thoughts and leave some things on the mountain if ya know what I mean. Sometimes gruelling physical experiences are necessary to break down some mental / emotional barriers. Note to myself: It feels good to let some things go... Lessen the load. For this experience I thank the gods (to me Mother Nature) for this spectacular piece of art.
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Franco
Franklin H
Felt like I was there with you. Good logging.