Blogs from Hua Shan, Shaanxi, China, Asia - page 2

After another night in the train, I arrived at Xi'an about 1 pm. I was a lot more tired than after the other night trains, because this time I traveled on a hard sleeper. Because there was no space anymore for my backpack, I put it on my bed as I also did on my previous trips. But because the beds are definitely smaller, I almost had no room anymore for my legs. Because with the hard sleeper, there are three beds on top of each other, instead of two which is the case for a soft sleeper. So it is impossible to sit up, not even a little... So I decided, I will permit myself a soft sleeper again next time. After arrival, I tried to buy my next train ticket in the train station, ... read more

Feeling the warmth of sun gave me more than enough energy to continue forward! Although I hesitated to take my headphones off, I decided it was required for me to enjoy the mountain...so I took them off. On the path to West Peak, I saw several ancient trees, one more than 1,000 years old, and took a few pics. I knew their age cause I could the read the signs (even without using a flashlight, ha). I passed a closed tourist attraction called Swordsman Crevice/Cave before reaching West Peak where I took a much needed poo! Out of the unbelievable kindness of someone's heart and maybe some deity's grace, another hiker had left behind a single tissue (in a kleenex pack) on the floor that I carefully used, ha sorry for the visual. Bathroom was worse ... read more

(Day 200 on the road)I am not a daredevil. How I found out? By climbing across wooden planks that were attached to a vertical mountain cliff, a 1000 meters high up in the air! The pictures I took do not really do the experience much justice, but it was by far the scariest experience of my life that I had sought deliberately. Chinese official statistics put the death toll on this hike at a comforting zero (how comforting indeed), but non-Chinese figures show a much higher rate of death, some of them putting it as high as 100 per year. Who knows who is right, but I was going to make damn-sure I would not be included in these statistics. I am not sure how dangerous this hike really is (some call it the most dangerous ... read more

(Day 83 on the road)I am back from climbing Hua Shan, one of the five holy Taoism mountains of China, and famous for its spectacular scenery. I had set out with three people from the hostel I stayed in (Canadian Allen, British Harriet and American Aaron), and on the bus there from Xi'an we met another American couple (Jen and Eric) and an Australian father with his son (Paul and Tim), who then joined us. So we were a big group that started the ascent, and it was rather strenuous, both due to the steepness of it and the 36 degrees in the shades that we had to endure. There are four peaks on Hua Shan (North, East, South and West Peak), and we reached the North Peak after about 6 hours, all of it actually ... read more

Back in December I was sent a link from a work colleague (thanks Dan) regarding the most dangerous tourist route in the world. As soon as I seen the photos and read about the insanity of the trek, I knew it had to be done. Based on our record of disasters since leaving the UK, we did reconsider the situation but decided "What must happen will Happen" (Gino, India 2008). The evening before the trek we met two other travelers that were drawn to our idea of making it out to this remote location and travel the most dangerous tourist route in the world. We Google photos and worked out how to get to Hua Shan from Xian by public transport. That night we had a few beers and hyped up the insanity of the adventure ... read more