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

Living History in Xi'An

Now, if you want to learn more about China’s history, Xi’An is the city to do it. It was the home of China’s first dynasty and was the capital of many after that. For starters it has an ancient wall that was built ~ 600 years ago during the Tang dynasty to protect the gridded city inside. Now the city has stretched out but the wall still there and open to visitors. We went for a great bike ride around the entire city.

                                                                 

 The City of Xi’An also has a Bell Tower and a Drum Tower, both which date back ~700 years to the Ming Dynasty. They are and were public infrastructure used to signal to the city both time and events.


Not far away, the Terracotta soldiers and horses were unearthed and are still chilling. All 8,000 of them site in 3 sites discovered in 1974 by farmers. They were made in 210 BC to protect the Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. There were soldiers, generals, archers, horses and chariots. Every face is different and the details were striking. When they were first unearthed they had pigments that quickly faded due to exposure. More are still being dug out and reconstructed.

The rich culture continues on today. We got the chance to visit a market area where tasty food of every sort was made. Xi’An is known for it’s spicier dishes. We had the wonderful dinner with Hanzi’s family. Dinner tradition here reminds me of big dinners in Germany, food and a good amount of wine.

 There is a water show that happens daily in a public plaza in front of the Goose Pagoda. The temple was built to house Buddhist text during the Tang Dynasty. It leans slightly. The water show is supposedly the largest in Asia and even with the bad weather, was fun to see and even get wet in.

Green Leads the Fashion

We got to Xi’An after what I can only describe as the happiest flying experience of my life. I did not know seats and flight attendants could be so colorful, that people did in flight exercises or that the landing tune would be a Chinese version of ‘On the Bayou’,  but all were welcome.

The International Horticultural Exposition in Xi’An is one of the principal reasons for our trip here. It’s put on annually around the world by a Swiss horticultural group. We submitted a garden design last fall that was accepted. The garden was based around the concept of phytoremediation as a solution to industrial waste in the landscape. Although time ran out on the construction of our garden, we received tickets to attend the expo and a few phones calls got us around to see everything quite easily.
    
Our time at the expo fell on a usually hot day for Xi’An. Temperatures reached 35 C and we were on the pavement all day. Thankfully we were cajoled into buying hats for the occasion.

The mascot of the Expo followed us through Xi’An. It was displayed everywhere, from the Terra Cotta warrior site to the taxi’s.

The expo itself was enjoyable. It’s construction and advertising reminded me of a theme park in certain ways. Unlike most developments of this scale, a year ago the entire property was farmland. The Expo features a section on China’s provinces where I got the chance to learn about more than I could travel to. There was a zoo section with pandas, an international section with country’s gardens selling souvenirs, and a lot of surprising things done with plant materials.


The Master Garden Section had designs by West 8, Wang Xiangrong, and Martha Swartz, representing the USA with her garden design. I know this will seem biased but that design was my favorite, with one-way mirrors along the outside walls that were designed to give you a glimpse into what people do when they think noones watching. We yelled to a woman with no avail as she fixed her hair right in front of us. Brilliant