Aug 16, 2011 - ** Hua Shan - Blog **

Sandwiching our two days in Xi’an itself we visited the nearby mountain Hua Shan, a holy Taoist mountain. From reading Lonely Planet it sounded like it would be a good climb and overnight stop away from Xi’an. That was until we googled it. We then discovered Hua Shan is more popularly known as the ‘Most Dangerous Hiking Trail in the World’. Stories abounded of paths that were no more than foot- and hand-holes carved out of sheer rock faces, high death tolls and rotting wooden planks for paths. Further research uncovered that while this had...

Jul 1, 2011 - Let's Go Climb the 90 Degree Mountain! Yeah!

Over the river and through the woods to the extremely dangerous mountain we go! Well, I guess it wasn’t the most dangerous mountain ever. It did have guard chains that came to mid-calf, so we definitely couldn’t fall over the edge! And there were built in stairs, though you could barely place ¼ of your foot securely on it. I felt bad for those manly men that have strangely large feet…they had to walk sideways. But boy did I work my calf and thigh muscles that day! Some of my classmates we out of breathe before even reaching the quarter...

Apr 5, 2011 - HUASHAN - Montanha, meditacao e taji

Ha dois dias estamos em Hua Shan, na provincia de Shaanshi. O nome da cidade eh o mesmo da montanha ao pe da qual ela fica. Saimos de uma imersao de Taiji em Chenjiagou, para uma imersao de meditacao aqui. Na verdade nao eh bem imersao. . . Aqui, no templo Yu Quan Guan, uma joia encravada no monte Hua Shan, estamos alternando a pratica do Taiji, com a meditacao Chen e palestras maravilhosas que explicam a conexao entre o taoismo e o Taiji. A experiencia para mim tem sido uma deliciosa surpresa! Sempre sofri com meditacao. Me mater estatica...

Nov 23, 2008 - China

We all made it across the border into China. Well just about. It was doubtful at one stage. Sharmila was detained for almost an hour without an adequate explanation. This border crossing was so much different from Laos and Vietnam. Not only because this is the first time someone was held back but because of the modern, clean and impressive building we passed through to get to the Friendship Gate. That afternoon we went on a riverboat which took us up the Zuo River to Huashan to explore the magnificent scenery and prehistoric rock paintings....

Nov 18, 2008 - Hua Shan

so i made it to my first holy mountain today. unfortunately, because of some bus complications and sleeping in a bit too late, i didnt make it out there till 2 in the afternoon, it being 2 hours outside of xian. once i got there i didnt have time to climb the mountain which sucked, but just being there was pretty incredible, and there was also a really nice temple that i looked around with interesting looking monk dudes with long beards. movin on to chengdu tomorrow via a 16 hour train, so im going to go food shopping tonight so im...

Feb 20, 2008 - 花山 （Mt Hua)

Marijn has left me the honour of describing or climb up Mt.Hua, so I will seize the opportunity while he lies in bed vomiting (he says he didn't drink last night, so I'm forced to believe it was the cookies he ate). Not to worry, he says other than a bit of nausea and vomiting he feels fine, but if he isn't better tomorrow we will of corse go to a hospital. The eventful day of the climb started early, even though we didn't actually comence the ascent until around 11:30. We woke up at five to get ready and catch the first bus to the station,...

Jun 14, 2007 - A sidetrip to Mount Huashan......

Mount Hya Shan is some 120 kilometers to the south of Xi'an, which I've decided to visit because I don't want to spend all of my time in Chinese cities, and to be honest the Lonely Planet guidebook gives it a good review! On the bus I meet two Aussies, Steve and Esther, who are planning to be a little more adventurous than me and climb the mountain that afternoon and stay overnight. For some inexplicable reason I've taken my big backpack instead of just taking my small one and filling it with what I need, so my only option is to stay...

Aug 22, 2006 - Continue on to Xian

On our way at 7:30am for Xian (pronunced Chi-an) Stopped at a truck stop for WC and saw a sign in the Ladies Room - "Dont spit anywhere". That was the only thing written in English!! 5 1/2 hours on the bus; checked into a nice hotel - the City Hotel Xian, and then started our sightseeing trek with a new guide - Linda. Xian is a city of 7 million which served 11 dynasties and was the starting point of the Silk Road. This trade route began in 119BC. The Silk Road ran between Central Asia and Europe. We toured a museum on the grounds of the...

Jun 23, 2006 - Travel to Xian.

Today we started out pretty early. We had a 7:50 am flight from Beijing to Xian. The flight was very good and took 1 ½ hours. We proceeded to our hotel the Xian Shangri -La Golden Flower. After a brief rest we (not I) ate another typical Chinese lunch and then went to the Shaanxi Provincial Historical Museum. We learned the history of the Chinese people from 1.5 million years ago and 3 dynasties to today. We also saw art work. It was very interesting. After the museum, we were brought back to our hotel to rest and await a buffet dinner...

Apr 9, 2006 - Dumplings Steam French

Hua Shan Hua Shan may be one of Taoism's five sacred mountains, but it's certainly no place for hermits to contemplate the universe these days. Like many Chinese mountains, Hua Shan attracts crowds. Big ones. If you've never climbed a peak in China, first imagine a raging neighbourhood block party. Then move the block party to a semi-wilderness area with lots of steep trails and blossoming plum trees and you've more or less got it. Mountains are not selective in China. They don't attract certain types of people, they attract all people,...

Jan 25, 2006 - Xi'an

Well we are actually now in Yangshuo, a wicked little town in the south of China and owing to crap internet in Shanghai we haven't updated this site, sorry! Xi'an was an experience to say the least. It was a pretty soul-less town, even though it is described as China's ancient captial, it doesn't know what it is. It was both ancient in parts, the complete city wall (amazing), but then contrasted with malls, bright-lights, poverty, dirt and beggars. We didn't get a good first impression when my luggage was lost on the flight and we were...

Aug 12, 2005 - Hiking up HuaShan

Last night... did not exist. Rather than sleeping soundly in a bed, we did not sleep at all, instead spending the early hours of the day hiking up one of China's holy mountains, HuaShan. People say it is the most strenuous hike up all of the holy mountains, and it was really really intense at points. While it wasn't as hard as Volcan Baru in Panama (the other night hike I've done, which made me swear them off for ever... until the summer at least...!), at points it was much much scarier. There were times when you had to literally scale the...