华山: Living Life on the Edge

I admit: since I have come to China, I have become a mountain nut. The first mountain I ever climbed was Mount Blue when I was spending the summer in Maine in 2005. I was tired, wore the wrong shoes, was not prepared, and hated every moment of it (I was also a super moody teenager at that time and, therefore, hated everything). At that time, it would have been safe to say that I would probably never set foot on a mountain (or outside in the wilderness) ever again. Looking back today, I cannot believe that I could have ever felt that way! Throughout college and beyond, I grew to once more adore the outdoors--camping, hiking, and (most recently), mountain climbing. My first mountain that I attempted was not in China, but in Nepal (go big or go home, I suppose... catch up on that adventure here!). I hiked through the Himalayas with my girlfriend and made it up to 2,440m (that's 11,290ft) and found that I loved the way my body felt after an intense day of hiking. Back in China, I visited Zhang Jia Jie in May with the one and only Big Four adventure (check it out!) and Yellow Mountain with Adam just last month (right over here!!). I have definitely tried to make up for lost time when it comes to traversing one of God and nature's greatest creations so when I knew we were going to Xi'an for National Holiday, there was something else, just 75 miles outside the city that I wanted to do.

Hua Shan (华山) is a little different from the other mountains that I have climbed in China. Like so many beautiful places in nature, Hua Shan has been given a role of spiritual and religious importance (even in the atheist country of China). As early as the second century BC, there have been Taoist temples on top of the mountain due to it's immense natural beauty. Taoists actually believe that the god of the Underworld lives beneath the mountain and the mediums at the temples communicate with the god. Equally interesting, Hua Shan has also always been a beacon for immortality seekers due to the rare and coveted herbs that grow on the peaks... some of them believed to give you eternal life. Today, the China Taoist Association helps to run and maintain the peaks, discouraging poaching and logging and keeping the mountain a holy place even today in the secular 2014.

It's importance in the Taoist faith can be seen in it's title--it is one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China. Originally I thought that Yellow Mountain must also be included and maybe even Zhang Jia Jie... but in truth, I don't know if I have heard of any of the other mountains. Tai Shan (泰山)the "Tranquil Mountain" in the east, Hua Shan (华山) the "Splendid Mountain" in the west, Heng Shan (衡山) the "Balancing Mountain" in the south, Heng Shan (恒山)the "Permanent Mountain" in the north (yes they have the same name), and the great central mountain, Song Shan (嵩山), the "Lofty Mountain." The five mountains are arranged according to the traditional cardinal directions in geomancy (divination using markings in the ground) and their fame grew during the reign of Emperor Wudi in 140BC (so their title of being sacred has definitely been around for awhile now). 

Of course, geologists and scientists know that the  mountains are millions of years old, standing through the tests of time, earthquakes, and a modernization of a nation. But legend has a very different origin to these five sacred mountains... 

According the legend, the five sacred mountains originated from the body of Pangu, the first being and the creator of the world. It is believed that in the beginning, the chaos of the universe formed an egg where yin and yang were perfectly balanced together until Pangu hatched from the egg and split yin and yang with his great axe. He formed the earth (yin) and the heavens (yang) and to keep them separated, he continued to stand between the two, pushing up the sky. This took 18,000 years and after Pangu placed the heavens where he wanted them to be, he laid down and died. His breath became the wind; his voice, thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the moon; his blood, the rivers; his facial hair, the stars and Milky Way; his bone marrow, sacred diamonds; his sweat, rain. On top of all this, his body also helped to form the five sacred mountains (and I'm assuming all the other mountains in China, too): Tai Shan was his head, Heng Shan was his right arm, the other Heng Shan was his left arm, Song Shan was his belly, and Hua Shan was his feet.

Pangu is kind of giving me a Yeti vibe...

 Enough history lesson!

Hua Shan is one of the tourist attractions in the Xi'an area; it's a bit further out but definitely worth the trip and a nice way to get outside of a big city, even if it is just for a few days.

We got our train tickets (standing room only but we managed to nab seats anyway!) and took the two hour train ride from Xi'an to the village of Hua Shan where (after a bit of difficulty), we found our hostel, Bao Lian She, which was literally two blocks from the base of the mountain. 

There is a wonderful vibe in the village of Hua Shan--a feeling of adventure! I haven't felt anything like it since I was in Kathmandu; a sort of feeling like everyone is sharing the same amazing adventure together. Everyone who is in that village will climb, is about to climb, or just finished climbing Hua Shan. There are stores selling back packs, walking sticks, head lamps, gloves, and maps. It is actually super popular to start your hike at twilight, climb all through the night to the East Peak, and watch the sun rise. I don't know about you, but that sounds dangerous. So instead, Adam and I woke up right before dawn to start our trek up Hua Shan.

Baozi at 5am... Champion level reached.

Hiking in China is very different from hiking in America, or really anywhere else I have been in the past. Where you hike through winding dirt paths through a dense forest in America or Sweden, in China, there are rarely ever forests and the paths are always one of two things: concrete slopes or stairs. Yeah. Stairs. Let's just say that climbing a mountain up thousands of flights of stairs SUCKS.

 

We started our hike at about 6am, just as the sun was starting to rise. It was quiet (which is hard to say in China) and there were only a few other hikers on the trail. We hiked uphill, up countless steps, the cold Autumn air keeping us cool and upbeat. The stairs were so steep at some points that they resembled a ladder where we had to cling to the rusty chains to try and pull ourselves up, not thinking of the dangerous fall behind us.

I'll be honest: Hua Shan was really nothing special. I had already been to Zhang Jia Jie that was so expansive and massive and Yellow Mountain that was so unique and tall being hidden in the clouds. Hua Shan was the same shade as Yellow Mountain but lacked the impressive peaks and sights. If I had to recommend a mountain for you to go visit, it would not be Hua Shan.

EXCEPT!

The Plank Path in the Sky.

If you have ever seen one of those slideshows on random websites like "20 Unknown Travel Destinations" or "Craziest Hiking Paths" you have probably seen photos of the plank path. I saw photos of it years ago and instantly added it to My Life List. When Adam and I decided to go to Xi'an for National Holiday, THIS was the reason why I wanted to go to Hua Shan... The Plank Path and to cross it off the bucket list.

It is (technically) the deadliest hiking path in the world but if you are smart and calm, it is a walk in the park (1,000 feet in the air).

We waited in line for about an hour because of the holiday traffic but it was well worth the wait and I would do it all over again, getting pushed and bumped by hundreds of strangers.

We paid the 30元 for the safety harness (yes, we were safe the whole time) and we slowly made our descent to the side of the mountain.

You walk along this path until it ends at a rock face. The wind whipping around you and blasting your hair in your face, you look down to see a small hole, just big enough for a person to fit through. Ever so slowly, you lower yourself down into the hole and grab onto the iron bars that act as a makeshift ladder, leading you lower and lower down the side of the mountain. I tried to see if going backwards or forward would be better. I  prefer to look Death in the face so I went down the ladder forward, the wind biting at my cheeks and putting the biggest smile on my face.

Once you are down on solid ground (I use that term lightly), it is onward along the side of the mountain. There is a thick, rusty chain that you can hold onto as you slowly make your way along the plank path. The path is about two feet wide and slippery from years of adventurers going ahead of you and just one step the wrong way will send you plummeting thousands of feet into certain death (but a pretty cool way to go... even if it would be considered a stupid mistake). The first few steps are small ledges carved into the rock face but soon you are safely on the crudely made path making your way along the world's most dangerous hiking trail.

We hiked along the narrow plank for about fifteen minutes before we reached another makeshift ladder but this time without the crude metal bars--just some holes dug into the rock. Trying to ignore the fact that slipping and falling would probably be a bad idea, we slowly made our way up the crowded ladder, trying to work together with the people around us (trying doing that without speaking the same language). Our blood pumping, our hearts pounding, and our muscles shaking, we pulled ourselves up that final step of the ladder, quickly bopped along the cutout openings along the rock wall once more and landed on (legit) solid ground. We had made it to our destination!

Now you might think at the end of all this there might be something that is actually worthwhile--worth the 30元, worth the terror, and worth the whole ordeal. Maybe an ancient Taoist temple? Or better yet! A restaurant selling beer?! How about C). None of the above.

At the end of the road, was a very small altar built into the wall of the side of the mountain and a large carving in the rock that read, "Congrats, loser! You didn't die!" (Not really... I honestly have no clue what it says...). I think it was at this point that Adam thought of divorcing me before we even said, "I do." Not exactly the exciting destination that websites make you think resides at the end of the dangerous and mysterious plank path...

But you know what? I'm okay with it just being an altar and not a restaurant selling ice cold beer (seriously, I'm not bitter). It reminded me of just exactly where I was. This amazing experience didn't end at a restaurant or a gift shop but rather an altar--an altar on one of the holiest mountains in all of China. It was sobering--you feel like you had just conquered this great thing (whether it was death, a fear of heights, or the mountain, itself) and suddenly you are taken down off of your high horse and once again reminded just how small you are in the shade of Hua Shan.

We turned around for the return trip and this time we were a bit braver actually looking down and stopping to pose for a picture or two(thousand).

I was thrilled to be able to do this for so many reasons. First of all, it was on My Life List (#129... CROSS IT OFF!!) and I always get this amazing high when I can cross something off my List (sadly, I left the actual list in my apartment in Hangzhou so I couldn't cross it off on the mountain). But another reason why I loved this was that it pushed myself once more. It might not have been in the same way as hiking through the Himalayas and pushing my body physically but it was a similar sensation. As I was climbing down to the plank for the first time, the sun was beating down on me, the sky was blue, the mountains were laid out beneath me like a cooky carpet, the wind kept me cool and messed my hair up at the same time. Nature was all around me, coursing through me, enveloping me in its grasp. As I danced with death (even just the slightest bit), I felt so connected to the world around me and that was one of the times in my life that I have felt the most alive (that and the feeling of my heart pounding so rapidly that I could hear it in my ears).

I think, in the end, Adam enjoyed it too... Even though I forced him into it!!

Feeling like we could fly, there was a new bounce in our step as we decided to keep going just a bit further to the summit of the mountain--the South Peak. It's not nearly as high as I was in the Himalayas but it is the highest peak I have climbed to in China (Zhang Jia Jie was 1128m and Yellow Mountain was 1860m). At around 3pm, we made it to the summit of the South Peak at 2155m.

Add our medals to the collection!!

Once again, nature has dazzled me with it's beauty and greatness. The stairs that I had to climb in order to experience both nature and adventure were nearly impossible (and showed me that I need to try and get into shape). Adam and I managed to weave our way through the sea of humanity, safely navigate the paths of Hua Shan, and had a once in a lifetime experience on the side of a mountain, thousands of feet in the air... If that is not living, then I don't know what is!

“Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my 

ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where

 I practice my religion.”

--Anatoli Boukreev

Until Next Time,

Amanda 

Adventures in Avatarland!

The "How the Heck Do We Get Out of Here?" Edition

With the end of the school year approaching (only four more weeks!!), everyone in Hangzhou is becoming more and more aware of how our time together on this adventure is running out. Some people have been here for a year or two, while others have been around for four or five years--China has become an important part of everyone's lives and it is hard to leave it and the adventure all behind. With time running out, many people have begun to look at their China Bucket Lists to try and complete what is left on it. With Other Adam and DH returning to America this summer without a return ticket to China, the Big Four felt the need to take advantage of the May holiday a few weeks ago. Packing our bags, buying our train tickets, and saying, "Adios!" to Hangzhou for a few days, we hopped on our 13 hour train ride (no sleeper train here, sitting up on nice hard seats all the way, baby!) on Tuesday, April 29th.

Originally, our seats had us all separated around the train car but we were able to switch seats with people (our only bartering tool was the fact that we all originally had window seats). We were able to get our own little corner of four seats with a table and we managed to entertain each other for almost the whole ride out west. We played card games and poker, attracting the attention of nearly everyone sitting around us, including the policemen and food vendors who would walk by and just stop and stare, trying to figure out what we were doing. No matter where the foreigners go, we attract attention.

We rolled into Changsha some time after 8am on Wednesday and the Adams and I were not too thrilled to be back in Changsha. If you can think back to National Holiday in October, I told the tale of a typhoon, the plane trying to land in Hangzhou and having to take off again because of the rain, and landing in Changsha at 3 o'clock in the morning (if you missed that exciting adventure, you can read about it here ). Changsha got points as soon as we arrived because it offered us a McDonald's breakfast before we bought overly priced tickets for the five hour bus ride to our final destination ZhangJiaJie. The journey was long, cramped, with no air conditioning, but I like to think that it was worth it... even if we traveled for two days there and back only to spend one day actually in ZhangJiaJie... Oops!

We were dropped off on the outside of the city and we had to walk to try and find our hotel. Along the way, we met another laowai named Jeff from Canada. He is on quite a journey from Japan and he is making his way (on foot) to Turkey. I wish we had gotten a photo with him--you definitely meet some characters on the road!

We arrived at our hotel and the moment we saw the beds, we passed out. The plan was to meet back up at around 7pm (it was around 2o'clock at that point) but we all slept to almost 10 o'clock (for anyone who has taken a long distance train without a bed, you will know how not great your sleep is that night). The beds in that hotel were glorious and I felt no shame in flopping down on the bed and drooling on my pillow (even if DH was carved into the headboard and stared down at me as I did it).

By the time we woke up, we realized that most of China was already in bed since it was well after 9:30. We quickly ran out to get a cab in search of street food.

Having traveled around China a bit, I have come to realize just how great Hangzhou (and especially Cangqian) street food is. Small pieces of meat. No niangao. Tiny selection. ZhangJiaJie street food has a lot of learn BUT they did have noodles with the delicious pickled vegetables from Guilin so that's what I lived off of for the two days we were in town. Despite the poor selection, okay beer and even better company made the night a success!

Despite the fact that we had just slept for over six hours, as soon as we got back to the hotel, we headed right back to bed because we were up bright and early the next morning to grab an early morning bus to the ZhangJiaJie national park.

For those of you who don't know (I didn't before Rachel came over to China), ZhangJiaJie was the inspiration to the Avatar movie (blue people, not the Last Airbender). The planet of Pandora and the floating mountains were taken from the ZhangJiaJie national park and as you're walking through the park (especially when you look DOWN on the mountains), you can see how inspiring they can be.

The best part is that this photo was on the official ZhangJiaJie website... False advertizing?

 When you buy a ticket to the park, you actually get a three day pass and you probably need at least two of the three days to see everything the park has to offer. Sadly, we are bad at planning and we only had one day to see almost everything. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

On Thursday as we walked into the park, music was playing (just like Disney World!! Sadly, there were no blue people... They are missing out...) and the mountains were just towering above us. It's really incredible to think that the world has rock formations like this--the same world that has vast lakes, rainforests, deserts, and glaciers. Seeing sights like the mountains in ZhangJiaJie just makes me want to see it all... it doesn't calm the travel beast in me, it makes it hungrier and hungrier!

We stood in awe for a few minutes, snapping pictures, and drinking in the pure beauty of the park around us before we buckled down and went into beast mode--we had just paid 300元 and we were going to get our money's worth and see as much as we possibly could!

And so the climb began. Rachel had warned me about ZhangJiaJie. Her pure hatred for stairs should have been enough warning for me. There are more staircases than mountains in ZhangJiaJie and no one can convince me otherwise. There are old men who will carry you up the mountain if you pay them and after awhile, I didn't find that idea to be as funny as I originally had.

The smiles did not last too long...

 It took awhile for us to get anywhere with any views--I was starting to think that there were no Avatar mountains! We kept climbing higher and higher but still couldn't see anything. We had been going for nearly three hours before we finally reached our first destination: "The Six Wonders Pagoda." This was where the path ended (at a gift shop, of course), and the views were absolutely beautiful.

At spots like this, usually there are people standing by with traditional clothes and a camera for you to pose in front of the natural backdrops. I have yet to do this but I will probably succumb at some point. Adam and I (technically just I) felt the need to get a photo in front of the view (and Adam humored me). Lifting me up princess style, we gave the Chinese tourists quite a show--not only were we foreigners but we were lovey dovey foreigners.

The view from the top of the pagoda was worth the hike up the stairs in my eyes. Everywhere you turned, the world looked different. Everything was so green and the mountains were all so peculiar in different shapes and sizes. This was still such a small part of the park (the Huangshi Village scenic zone) and yet I felt like I could see so much. I love looking at mountains--there is such an age, grace, and elegance of them. They are ancient--millions of years old--from another world and yet here they stand in the middle of our modern age where nothing--except nature--is a mystery to us anymore.

We stopped to get medals to prove that we had hiked up the whole 1,100 meters (after the Himalayas, I like to laugh at that). We each got medals with our Chinese zodiac animal on it (except for Other Adam who chose the cow because he likes cows...) and our initials and dates carved into it.

After a quick break where I got my coveted Fanta (for 10元, the thieves), we decided that, after the three hour hike up, we were going to spend the 65元 for the cable car down the mountain. It was a bit terrifying going down the steep mountain and looking down and seeing just how far you would drop if the cable broke, but it was an absolute stunning view if you did not look down but out. We made our way down in about three minutes--three hours up and three minutes down...

Back down at the base of the mountain range, we decided to try and follow the confusing map and we made out way along the "Golden Whip Stream Scenic Zone."

Now, I love hiking. Ever since I was a little girl, my grandmother would take me and my cousins on "Wee Woomer Walks" where we would either go to Griffis Sculpture Park in Ashford Hollow or the Erie County Forest Preserve. I find nature to be extremely therapeutic. In China, the nature that I have come into contact with, it is not therapeutic... usually it just makes me sad. The hiking "trails" are usually roads (during Spring Festival, we hiked one of the best routes in the province and it was literally a street 60% of the time). Luckily in ZhangJiaJie, because it is a national park, there are only a few roads and those are not the hiking trails... However, the hiking trails are packed and it is impossible to go at your own pace, close your eyes, and listen to the birds (or monkeys). Litter is thrown everywhere, people are smoking, feeding the monkeys, vendors call out to you to try and sell things. Luckily, it was only along this trail that I really noticed it--the Chinese just don't know how to do nature.

That being said, one of the things that I love about nature in China is the monkeys. They are like squirrels out here--they are everywhere and I adore them. They are little scavengers and they pick through the garbage which makes me sad and many of the tourist will hand them food wrappers to eat and that just makes me mad but I could just sit and watch the monkeys for hours. They stole food from unsuspecting tourists and ran across the path, making people run after them with their cameras, hoping to get a good shot. Some of them were adorable (so many babies) and a few of them were actually BEAUTIFUL.

We continued to hike along the path making our way past "Talk about History at the Rock," ""Lovers From Afar," and the "Jumping Fish Pool" (the names were gold) and it was nice to see the three guys hangout and experience this amazing place together--probably one of the last big adventures they'll have together here in China. I was glad to be there and I had a ball but I think it was so much more important for them to spend the time together. Do I think that the adventure for them is over once DH and Other Adam return to America? Of course not! It will be a new adventure but the China Adventure is coming to an end quicker than we thought it would and I do feel a little bad.

We finally made our way to the end of the trail at the Camel Peak... and for once the name actually made sense--I could see the camel in the mountain! All the other names ("Ruin of Flyover," "Fairy Presenting Flowers," and Visitor from Space") did not live up to their names.

It was around 2 o'clock at this point, so we hopped on one of the buses to the Bailong Elevator to check out the YuanJiaJie scenic zone. And when they say elevator, they mean an elevator shooting you up the mountain.

I think YuanJiaJie was what Pandora was from because it was absolutely incredible. Tall and thin, short and fat, beautiful yellow and brown stone, bright green trees sprouting everywhere... these mountains have no rhyme or reason but--good lord--are they beautiful. Even though we only had a few more hours to see as much as we could, I kept finding myself standing still and just looking out at the mountains, not getting enough of them.

After about an hour, we tried to find our way back to the main gate but there were no signs and if there were any A). they were all in Chinese or B). they were wrong. We ended up wandering around completely lost and because of that, we ended up seeing so much more than we thought we would. We ended up stumbling onto what the Chinese like to call the "Greatest Natural Bridge" or the "Number One Bridge of the World." I admit, it was pretty cool, but I've seen better natural bridges (the one that used to be in Aruba!) so to call it the "greatest" might be a bit of a stretch, China...

You can walk across the bridge and onto a little island mountain out in the middle of nowhere. This is apparently called Lock Hill (which you can tell from either the sign that says the name or the thousands of locks that are scattered along trees, bushes, railings, and poles around the mountain.

Love Locks are popular in Europe, South America, and Asia. The idea is that you take a padlock with the initials of you and your lover on it and you lock it to a fence, a railing, a pole, a bridge, etc. and you throw away the key to show that your lives and your love are now locked together forever. Apparently, this overly adorable tradition comes from a tragic Serbian love story from World War I where a school mistress fell in love with an officer where they met at the Bridge of Love. When the war began, the officer went to fight and fell in love with a girl from Corfu, breaking off his engagement with the school teacher who later died of a broken heart. Because of this, young girls in the town would write their names on a lock with the name of their sweetheart and affix it to the bridge where the school mistress and the officer used to meet in order to protect their love. I had also associated love locks with Asia due to the Korean and Taiwanese dramas I used to watch in college and deep down, I always loved the idea of locking your life together with someone else.

When we arrived on Lock Hill, it took me a minute to realize that this was a place where couples brought their love locks and all of a sudden, my silly desire to have a love lock somewhere in this world came back with full force. But it was Adam, and not me, who offered to get us a love lock. We went to the small booth where they were selling different locks and we picked out a lock to have our names and the date carved into. With our love lock, we wandered around the hill searching for the perfect spot and because Adam always makes me make the decisions (because I hate deciding) and because I am bad at making decisions, it took way longer than it should have. But eventually, after wandering around Lock Hill, we found the perfect spot looking out over the mountains and eventually DH and Other Adam were able to put an end to the romantic action.

Writing out our names to have it carved into the lock

Leaving Lock Hill and the Natural Bridge behind us, we spent about 20 minutes trying to find a way out of the trail and find a way back to the buses. We wandered around, got help from a Chinese girl who ended up being just as lost as we were, and we went in a literal circle, before we finally found the road that led us back to the buses that led us back to the elevator which led us back to another bus which took us to the exit. We ended the day about two hours later than we wanted and we missed the last bus back to the city but we had seen almost 2/3 of the park which is pretty good since it usually takes about two days to see everything. We were exhausted by the end of it all but, to me, the train ride, the bus ride, and lack of sleep had all been worth it!

That night was another early night--after street food and a card game, we all passed out, our bodies aching from the day (but a good kind of ache!!). It was another early to bed, early to rise, because by 10am, we were off to the five hour bus ride to take us back to Changsha. This time it was much nicer--air conditioning, not nearly as crowded, and we were able to sit with each other. We arrived in Changsha with a few hours to kill. We ate, went grocery shopping, and people watched for a bit before entering into the madness that is a Chinese train station during a holiday. A bit crowded and basically a sea of humanity but once again we were able to switch seats with people and the Big Four was on its way back to Hangzhou... though not at all glamorous! Ah travel... you bring out the best and worst in people...

 This is what we do to entertain ourselves...

 

Even though four out of the five days of our trip were spent on traveling, I loved our ZhangJiaJie adventure! Big cities really don't do it for me... Unless it is filled with history and architecture like London, Paris, or Rome, I am not really the type of girl who gets a kick out of visiting a big city. Yes New York is fun and I am sure Los Angeles is exciting but it is nature that really gets my heart pumping and sets my soul on fire. Nature makes me feel so connected to the world around me. It also humbles me and makes me feel so small and insignificant. I am just 24 years looking out at the  millions of years that are staring back at me. It makes me feel so small and yet a part of something so big at the same time.

I used to love the line from Pride and Prejudice said by Elizabeth Bennet's little sister, Mary, "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?" And I have always agreed with it--give me a mountain or a forest over a boy any day... But now that I've got one (and a pretty good one at that), I've found that men and love and how it makes you feel can compare and compete with rocks and mountains.

The better question to ask is, "What is humankind compared to rocks and mountains?"

Until Next Time,

Amanda