Hua Shan

One of China's 5 sacred Tao mountains and purportedly home to one of the world's most deadly hiking trails!! This was perhaps my favourite place in China. The scenery is gorgeous and the hike is well worth it.

The traditional route up the mountain is the hardest. It includes the "Soldier's Walk" from Hua Shan village up to the North Peak. From there you can continue on to the four other peaks (West, Central, South and East). If you want to do the whole thing, make sure you have plenty of time - about 8 hours if you want to hike all the way from Hua Shan village and do a circuit of all 4 peaks.

If you are a little more pressed for time, you can take the cable car up close to the North Peak (1600m) and do the loop from there. In any case, it'll still take about 4 hours to do the loop from the cable car (allowing a bit of time to get lost), and you have to walk pretty fast to do that.

The coolest part of the hike is the Cliffside Plank Path.

After clambering down a shaky ladder over a vertical bit of cliff face, you then get to walk about 100ft around the side of a cliff. And then you get to walk back around it and back up the ladder!Woohoo! such fun! You can pay to use a harness which is caribinered to the cliff itself. This will cost 30RMB. It's probably unnecessary, though just to be safe....The funnest part is that it's a 2-way plank so you have to negotiate traffic in both directions!

There is a guy who works on the plank all day, taking photos of those who walk the plank. It'll cost an extra 30RMB for a photo they take of you - a polaroid that you can pick up on your way back along the plank.

You can take photos of yourself too - for free!

I personally didn't think it was THAT terrifying, though it seems things have improved since that dude wrote about it. If you aren't scared of heights, it shouldn't be that scary at all. I guess when it's super crowded it could be a bit hairy as you could well slip off somewhere along the route. Also if it's covered in snow or raining heavily, I suspect it could be quite dicey.

Entrance to Hua Shan is 100RMB and to take the cable car it costs an extra 110RMB.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Tips

• Remember that it's a mountain and the weather can be a bit erratic!
• You can bus (30RMB each way - takes about 2 hours on the new highway) or train it up to Huashan and get a taxi/motorbike the rest of the way to the base of the mountain.
• Or you can jump on a tour from Xi'an (basically a bus transfer) for around 360RMB. TOurs include a temple visit to Xiyue temple, the biggest Tao temple in Western China. It's a pretty interesting temple and worth a visit. The tour bus wastes a LOT of time though and means you get less time on the mountain. Also the tour buses stupidly visit the temple FIRST and THEN take you for lunch so you are lucky to have even 4 hours on the mountain!!
• It's possible to stay overnight on Huashan - a couple of hotels and a hostel are there. You can buy meals there that aren't TOO expensive either. Water is overpriced on the mountain but ultimately if you need water, you should pay the inflated price vs getting dehydrated.
• Many people hike so they can be at the top for sunrise. I didn't get to do this but can imagine how spectacular it must be!
• Gloves are a smart idea. They sell cheap and nasty ones on the mountain, but if you have any silk glove liners (available in pretty much any camping shop), bring them.

Food

Several cafes up there with a mix of food. We ate lunch at the bottom in a hotel restaurant (name unknown).

Links

• Mount Hua - Wikipedia
• If you want to read a kinda disturbing account of the Hua Shan hike, check out World's Most Dangerous Hiking Trail