Mount Huashan

We started our hike at a temple, like some sort of Indiana Jones movie. According to inscriptions on the mountain, people have been climbing Mt. Huashan for the last 2,300 years. In those days legendary kung-fu masters climbed to meditate and practice their art, scholars and poets climbed to reflect, and others climbed to gain wisdom and center. Now we climbed to climb.


Lot’s of steps and a steep climb were balanced by loads of peanuts and the best Chinese snack: ‘Beef Particles.’ Little did we know that we were in for the most sore legs of our lives in the next coming days. We kept our feet moving by singing, or in Yalin’s case, yelling off the mountain. These sometimes issued a singing response from climbers on other peaks.


Hiked to North Peak, the shortest of the four peaks. The peaks of the mountain are arranged like a compass, one for each direction. We stayed the night in a hostel on East Peak, the second tallest peak. From here we sat up to watch the sunset over West peak. In the morning we all came alive to see the sunrise. We had a breathtaking view from our peak.


People who lived and worked on the mountain offered more daring excursions with rope equipment. I went out to the Chess Pavilion where a story has it that an Emperor of the Song dynasty played chess after traveling up the mountain… and lost.


As one of China’s five great mountains, the entire way was coated with symbolism, both ancient and new. Characters carved into rock told poetry, history and meaning. Hikers placed sticked below large granite bolders to perhaps reflect on lightness and power. Along the chain ‘fence’ that climbed the mountain with us, couples locked engraved locks and threw the keys off the mountain to seal their commitment to one another.


The entire experience was on the backs of many employees of the site. Because there is only two points of access (North Peak and the base of the mountain), food, drinks and building materials had to be carried up to each peak. With the mountains many houses, shops and paths, the work was definitely formidable. The people we spoke with were all older men who were severely underpaid, often with families to support. This reality hit us hard.


After playing around on East Peak, we climbed the highest peak, South Peak. West Peak came next and by that point our legs had reached the state of Jell-O. We descended back down to North Peak to ride a trolley back down.


Anyone up for climbing the other four great Chinese mountains with me?

View from 2,000 meters

Sunrise

Sunset