Xi'an, Mt. Hua and Being a Sissy

I've realized that traveling while doing a study abroad is awesome for two reasons. The first is obvious, I get to go check out an amazing place in China. The second, I don't go to class and for some reason feel that it's justified. As if I needed some other reason to get me traveling more, I now have one.

Either way, my latest side-trip from the weekly hustle and bustle of studying in Chengdu was to Xi'an and Mt. Hua, about 2.5 hours from the old capital city. Before leaving I found myself getting very giddy about heading to Xi'an. This was the first place that went to this summer that people back home have heard of. When I told my friends I was heading to Chongqing they gave me the reply, "There's really a city in China with that stereotypical of a name?" And my parents were less than knowledgeable on what to do in Kunming, much less where the hell it is. So being able to say, "I'm going to Xi'an this weekend" and getting a normal response was really quite refreshing.

After yet another 18 hour train ride we arrived in the sweltering heat of Shaanxi Province. Due to the "weather phenomenon" that is Chengdu (being surrounded by mountains and being under pollution), I've managed to escape the heat for the most part this summer. But Xi'an brought me right back to the weather of Florida that I'm used to.

Walking out of the train station in Xi'an during the summer will really throw you back a step. The first thing you see is the city wall that surrounds the old part of the city, the first thing you smell is the horribly pungent (and somehow good tasting) cart food, and the first thing you feel is the sun throwing 104 degrees of hell in your face. It really is a lot to take in at once.

After getting our bearings set we decided to do what any group of 20-something year olds would do in Xi'an - ride a tandem bicycle around the city wall!

After enjoying the next hour and a half pedaling around the rim of the city, we checked out the Forest of Steles. This place has an awesome name for how mundane it is inside. It pretty much just consists of a bunch of stone tablets (some impressive looking and others not so much). It's prize product is a stone that predicts the coming of Christianity to China. However, this tablet does a great job of blending in with the rest of the 2300 that look just like it and it was very easy to just walk right by it. Oh well, maybe next time.

After cleaning up from a hot, sweaty day it was time to head out for the night in Xi'an. For those of you who don't know me, I like to be efficient. If I'm going to go out for a night in some new city, I want to be getting drunk while seeing some of the sights. So it was fortunate that on our way to the bar we passed the Bell Tower lighting up the very center of Xi'an. It was a great way to start off another night of drinking in China.

Saturday morning we headed out to go see what brought us to Xi'an, the infamous Terra Cotta Warriors. These 2200 year old guys are about an hour and a half from the actual downtown Xi'an, which was great so I could sleep off my hangover. Upon getting there I had forgotten since my last trip to Xi'an (5 years ago) how pretty the area around the warriors is. It's nestled right next to the mountains and offers a beautiful view of natural China. Excitedly, we hurried into the first pit of warriors as my memory came rushing back and everything seemed so familiar to me. But somehow you never get used to seeing an army of over 8000 clay, life-size figurines (most still underground).

It was nice to be able to go back to this place and see it in contrast of what Southwest China has to offer instead of placing it next to Beijing and Shanghai like I had before. I'm definitely able to appreciate more of China now than I had before, for both reasons of age and time spent here.

After seeing the First Emperor of China's army we set off back to downtown to check out the Big Wild Goose Pagoda - mostly because I liked the name of it. Plus, it turned out to have a social square around it that was very lively with the Chinese people enjoying their evening and KFC trying to sell more chicken wraps.

The next day we woke up nice and early to head off to Mt. Hua, about a 3 hour trip outside of Xi'an. We had seen plenty of scary pictures of the climb up the mountain, talked to a couple of travelers who had already made the voyage, and decided to hell with it, we have to. This is where I strongly recommend you run a Google image search of Mt. Hua and see what comes up first, as this is the only real info we had about the place.

It started out a rainy, nasty morning over Hua Shan (as the Chinese call it, since "shan" means mountain) as we started our hike. The first three hours found me in a pink poncho I picked up for three kuai (~50 cents) absolutely sweating my ass off while enjoying some of the most beautiful views that I have seen so far in China. Eventually we found ourselves above the rain clouds and enjoying a nice breeze cooling us off during our difficult climb up.

After nearly four hours of climbing we made it to where the cable car takes the lazy, half-assing tourists to enjoy the view. From here you can spend about another four or five hours hitting up all five peaks that Hua has (creatively named north,east,south,west, and central). But considering we only had about two and a half hours of daylight left, we decided to book it to West Peak to get checked into our hotel and do some more exploring the next morning. After getting lost from the group and wandering in the wrong direction and in a circle for an hour and a half on my own I was able to find the hotel with the others sitting back enjoying an overdue rest. But this was no time to rest, the sun was setting over the West Peak and we had the most beautiful view in all of China.

The next morning we woke up at 5AM to watch the sunrise and get started on our hike to the other peaks. Our first walk was from the West Peak to the highest point on South Peak. The views from here were outstanding from everywhere.

And I know what you're thinking. Yes, the statue on the top of the South Peak does look like a giant penis with dragons on it. Anyways, from here we wound around towards the East Peak and what makes Hua Shan as famous as it is - the plank path. This path is nailed into the side of the mountain with a 1000 meter drop below you. It is only three planks wide and didn't even have harnesses on it until 2005. This is where my friends become badasses and I crap out. It's not that I didn't think that I could do it, because I know that I'm physically able to walk sideways and climb down/up a ladder. These are all things I've done before. But the older I get the worse I am with heights and this I knew I just couldn't handle. So, sitting on the sidelines I watched four of my friends climb down and have the time of their life in China. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was jealous, but I'd also be lying if I didn't say that I think there is something wrong with them.

From here we looped our way around to hit up the East Peak then quickly made it back down to the cable car. Unfortunately, we had to take the easy and convenient way down due to time constraints with getting back to Chengdu. I would have loved to stay on Hua another day and possibly grow the balls to climb out onto the plank path. But in the mean time I'll just enjoy knowing I was able to be on that mountain and enjoy China away from the pollution, traffic, and swarms of people.