Day 39 - Xi'an

30.08.09

Today I leave my Xi'an home and make the journey to Shanghai, I could only get soft sleeper tickets, so it should be a relatively luxurious journey across to the cost. My body is punishing me for my mountain exploits and walking is painful, going up or down steps is just amusing. I pack out train food at the super market, leave my bags in the luggage room and then head out to the south of the city outside the walls with Mike, my Dane hostel friend. He's studying in Beijing for a few months and is visiting some places in China before he heads back to start studying. He climbed Hua Shan a couple of days before me, using the sensible day time method and was lucky enough to have clear weather. The City sprawls out past the walls much like other Chinese cities and doesn't really have any interesting points of note, but it's a good walk none the less and gets me stretching my legs out. I end buying one of those indestructible plastic water bottles for tea and drinking water and a SIGG flask to store hot water in.

In the evening when I board the train to Shanghai my 4 berth compartment is shared with an Aussie and a Chinese couple. It's a nice compartment with TVs, soft beds, individual lights and is very clean, what more can you ask for? The Aussie guy has some interesting stories to tell and as ever the Chinese couple offer us their food and are hospitable and friendly.

Day 38 - Hua Shan, Xian

29.08.09

Mountain climbing and it's a 6am wake up and we start the ascent at 7.30 when they reopen the gates. It's not raining too heavily anymore, but the drizzle is persistent. Some parts of the path are literally like waterfalls and the steps have water cascading over them that means I have to totally immerse my shoes to move on.

The climb is very hard work in places and quite steep, with small steps and foot holes cut into the rock with just chains bolted into the rock to hold onto.
My companions are all wearing disposable ponchos which keep them dry from the rain, but inside they are soaking as the sweat has no way to escape and every time we stop they get freezing cold. I on the other hand am embracing the west's finest in waterproof breathable rain jacket, flexible trekking shoes with a proper grip and a water proof dry bag fitted into my rucksack. I wondered for a while if spending a lot of money on good equipment was needed, but it has consistently made life so much easier on the journey.


We reach the first summit around midday and unfortunately so does the mist. At the brief times when the mist does clear, the mountain looks marvelous and the scenery is breath taking, unfortunately, it doesn't clear all that often. We hike around the summit area and visit the main peak areas, some of the old routes are actually just stupid and you can see why it has a bad reputation, luckily most of them have newer safe alternatives. As it nears the afternoon I realise I need to make it down the mountain fast to catch my bus home and so say good bye to my friends who are staying in the village another night and speed on ahead. I take the shorter route back down, which is also a lot more extreme with what can only be described as ladders carved out of the rock in sections of 40m or so, you can easily see why it has been called the 'soldiers path'. I make the descent from the peak in lightning fast speed an hit the bottom in about 45 mins as opposed to the 4 hours on the way up.

A 3 hour bus journey back to Xi'an a brilliant hot shower and some needed sleep.

Day 37 - Xian, Hua Shan

28.08.09

Today's idea is either very very very stupid, or perfectly safe and will result in a fantastic morning view. Just outside of Xi'an is a 2160m mountain called Hua Shan, in all the literature it is know as a very dangerous mountain and has resulted in deaths from climbers falling off it's steep sides or venturing off the path and falling down a sheer cliff face. To put some scale into it, Scafell Pike is 977m, Snowdon is 1085m and Ben Nevis, Britain's tallest mountain is 1344m high. The interesting twist to the story is that I want to do a night climb to make it to the peak for sunrise, which is supposed to be an amazing sight. I've done my research and know it's possible and many people do it and I have all the right equipment with me as I think I might not be the most technological traveler I've met, but I am definitely the best equipped and have the essentials (torches, first aid kits, thermals, water purification tablets, etc.)

I get on my train at about 3pm and get to the train station, which is a 20 minute taxi drive from the mountain's base at just after 5pm and considering I want to start climbing at about 11pm I've got some serious time to kill. In an interesting note the taxi drivers think I'm crazy when I say I want to climb Hua Shan tonight and because of the rain tell me it's very dangerous and one even said I'll be swept off the mountain (a nice touch). It's about 7pm, far too early to climb, so I kill some time at the base listening to music and mandarin tapes. Interestingly, the wind picks up and the rain starts coming and it actually gets quite nasty, so I have a walk up to the mountain gates and buy my ticket and then toy with the idea of starting the climb early, but decide against it as I don't want to be on the summit waiting for ages for sunrise. Lucky I didn't as about an hour later, they shut the gates and don't allow anyone else to climb up as the conditions are too dangerous. There are around 15 of us waiting and at around 12.30am we have to leave the gates and I end up with 4 Chinese students who decide to sleep it out in the village over night. Once again I manage to bump into some lovely people who help me out.