One of the highlights of the Xian tour is Hua Shan (華山). I have been to the Tai Shan (泰山) in the east and Huang Shan (黃山) in the Central but never to this third of the five famous mountains in China's west. We had seen it from a distance but was not sure whether the mountain we saw in our coach was really Hua Shan and if so, what it'd feel like to actually put our feet upon its earth or rock tracks and how it'd look up there.
This is a monument we passed through in our visit to the Hua Shan. Perhaps it's there to signal that Hua Shan is honoured not only by Chinese emperors but also by Buddhists, an idea concretely embodied in the Xiyue Temple (西嶽寺).
This is where we started our tour of the Hua Shan, the cable car station at the foothills
Creepers on the wall on the way to the cable car ticket office
This is a monument we passed through in our visit to the Hua Shan. Perhaps it's there to signal that Hua Shan is honoured not only by Chinese emperors but also by Buddhists, an idea concretely embodied in the Xiyue Temple (西嶽寺).
This is where we started our tour of the Hua Shan, the cable car station at the foothills
Creepers on the wall on the way to the cable car ticket office
There were shops selling souvenirs everywhere
A monument at the foot of Huashan to commemorate 8 soldiers who climbed the mountain in a surprise attack of the invading Japanese soldiers guarding it. That attack enabled them to to secure control of the peak during the second world war. The Japanese seemed totally unable to learn: they're at it again !
A model of the various peaks of the Huan Shan outside of the cable car ticket office.
The hillsides look really steep, almost perpendicular, looking up from the ground
How straight do they rise up !
How magnificent they look!
Some rise up like huge drums
Another striated drum
A view taken from the cable car
Another view from the cable car showing the gradient of the climb
Up and up we go
Trees struggle to get a foothold along the steep sides
Look at how they'd make use of every possible crevice and break in the fault lines.
There is a tiny line upon its ridge. That's where we would have to climb later.
How lush the vegetation !
I love the resilience of the trees and shrubs
A view of one of peaks behind which are mounting cable cars
A different view of the same peak
This is the upper station of the cable car
Fortunately, except for small portions, the paths leading up the peaks are quite wide.
Some of the paths are well paved and even are sheltered by the overhanging boughs of the trees lining them.
A view from a mid-point up one of the peaks.
The road signs. The iron rails are full of locks: visible symbols of the human hope of keeping loving couples together.
More lover's locks
How desperate are people for love everywhere !
A long way up to go
This is a split rock through which we must pass to go further up
Another view of the split rock
The early birds going downhill already
Another view of the valley
Some of the paths are quite narrow, with just enough space for two, one each way
This shows how far we went, as high as the top of the other peak
Clouds on Hua Shan, spreading out like the bottom of a fruit
The side of the hills are filled with vegetation
The clouds seem to have been moulded by high winds blowing in the same direction while the ground below is covered by mist
We have to pass through this path to reach up
We passed through a mid-way temple through a kind of tunnel
Through the end of the tunnel we can see one of the other peaks
Play of light at the end of the tunnel
After the tunnel, a relatively larger mid-way resting spot before we move further up at the corner of the path is a temple.
This Taoist temple was built in the reign of Northern Wei some 1500 years ago because it was considered a good feng shui spot.
Chinese fortune telling by sticks in action at the temple
A withered tree spreading its arms over the path like a monster
Some memorial carvings we found one of the walls on our way up
This shows how far we climbed, one peak after another, each higher the the previous one.
This is how far we still had to go, the so-called "ladder to the sky" (天梯)
It looks as if the clouds were spewing out from spot hidden behind the mountain
The hill sides there are really steep but you still find trees growing at whatever crevice they can find.
A view of the other side of the ravine. There are mountains as far as the eyes can see.
Small shelters everywhere along the mountain ridges.
The palnts really know how to choose the right spots to sprout their leaves: the side of the mountain with less wind are full of vegetation.
Look how sheer is the precipice
I found to my surprise some unknown flowers on my way up
A rubbish bin I found on the resting spot
Our first look out point. On the rock are written the words, "Talking swords on Huashan "(華山論劍): the influence of martial arts novels.
the paths and buildings are built on the water divides of the peaks
Another view of the knife edge ridges of the mountains
I walked this path
The sides are quite steep
Still got a long way to go
This is a mid-point station up the peak
I like the clouds up there
They seem to rush at us
Rushing above one of the peaks as if attracted by the height of the hill top.
Some are winding and twisting like a dragon
Another view of the twisting dragon
The dragon seems to be turning its head around
Other clouds llok altogether more serene. Calm and/or violent, even amongst the high clouds. Height seems to have made no difference. Is that not the rhythms of life itself ?
It's so beaultiful. I visited to many famous mountains in China but I have not yet been to Hua Shan.
回覆刪除[版主回覆09/21/2012 17:04:04]Hop[e the photos will give you some inkling of what it looks like both from the ground and up there.
Many years ago I talked swords on Huashan with Joeng Gwo and Siu Lung Neoi.
回覆刪除There are no cable cars in those days.
Time flies like an arrow rushing to the toilet...
[百了回覆09/22/2012 17:32:41]No. Fortunately, they knew martial arts and just got some fecal sewage on their clothes.
[版主回覆09/21/2012 23:32:56]Did Joeng Gwo and Siu Lung Neoi get flushed down the toilet into the sewer and then the river along with the arrow?
Did you go in a group tour or free backpacker? The route seemed "risky" to me because of all those narrow and steep ridges. I probably would suffer from vertigo walking along those ridges with chains as supports! But, the mountains are really gorgeous. Thanks for the sharing.
回覆刪除[Gravel回覆09/22/2012 16:33:41]I'll still give it a pass considering my fear of height.
[版主回覆09/22/2012 06:07:43]I was on a group tour. Not so risky if you take one step at a time. But I agree that the mountains are spectacular.
華山變了很多啊。清末時候我們都是花八個小時從地面爬到山頂。現在有索道，其它的路也比以前好走得多。那是很多都是90度角用兩邊鐵鍊借力爬上去，有些崖邊更是沒攔柱圍，年中不少人掉下去做了神仙。有一年五一，人們趁一天假期即日來回，上山下山的在只容一人上落的垂直棧道，有人跌倒，骨牌效應下一串人掉了下山，接近一百人做了神仙。
回覆刪除[版主回覆09/22/2012 06:39:26]According to the tour guide, if we were not to take cable car, we would have to walk 3999 steps up and some parts of the path would allow only one person to pass at a time. So it's not surprising that if anyone on top were to fall, a whole chain of people below would have to make an appointment with Yim Lau Wong too, especially if there were no iron chains as support. Thanks for the info.
Looks like you didn't do too much cliff climbing except walking on flat ground most of the time. Now that you have had a taste of "mountaineering", how does it feel in comparison with that carnal pleasure?
回覆刪除[版主回覆09/22/2012 20:46:42]Most of the tour members were old men and women. It would make them feel bad if I insisted on going it alone.Apple and oranges shouldn't be compared.
龍雲削壁, 煞是好看.
回覆刪除[版主回覆09/23/2012 08:45:28]Yeah it's even better when you're up there and experience the winds on the mountain, an infinite expanse of blue sky above, the entire plains and the lower mountains below and feel of the rhythms of life itself pulsing through your body.