Hua Mountain

The next full day in Xian, we headed up to Hua Mountian. It is about a 3-hour bus ride, that I slept most of the way through. I was a bit worried about this hike because of the online descriptions as “dangerous” and the pictures of people gripping the heavy metal chains as they make their way around the cliff edges that we saw on the internet. Plus the only tour was in Chinese. But then I guess we wouldn’t hear all the warnings and such to fuel the fire for my growing anxiety. The drive, lunch, and a short stop at some voodoo “medical” clinic took up the morning, and after switching buses a few times, we arrived at the base of the mountain. We were super lucky because although it rained the previous evening, the weather was now clear and beautiful.
There are two ways to get to the starting point of the hike: 1. Walk up the Soldier’s Path, which consists of about a bazillion steps straight up the mountain, or 2. Take the cable car. We opted for #2. As I went through my pictures, I was surprised to find myself a little dizzy looking at some of them. At the time, I was interested in looking around, but wow, we were really high up!
The mountain was very beautiful, and had an amazing view. The higher up we went to the different peaks, we saw snow on the ground. Along with the cherry blossom trees, it was quite picturesque. The hike was a bit difficult because it is all stairs. Very steep stairs. There were some points where we needed to use the chains to pull ourselves up, but I didn’t feel in danger at all. We went to the North Peak, Dragon's Trail, Fish Ridge, and finally the Peak in the Clouds.
The views were amazing, the weather was perfect, and everything was absolutely beautiful. I had heard of this place, but it was Aiko’s idea to go there. It was a great idea and I’m glad we got to see this beautiful part of China.