huashan
May 28, 10:31 AM by Jimmy Sie
this is my third day in xi’an and i’m at the foot of mt. huashan. arrived here quite too early in the day as i took the morning train at 9 from xi’an and reach here at 10.30.
i actually wanted to climb up the mountain during the day time and come back at night. but somehow (probably because of the influence of the people here) i decided to climb up the mountain at night so that i can see the sun rise from the east peak of the mountain. so i have very long hours to kill. luckily for me i found this internet cafe here at the foot of the mountain.
was trying to find internet cafe near my hotel in xi’an but couldn’t find one. so i was offline for few days as i don’t want to use the internet at the hotel which is very expensive (50RMB per hour).
had a little bit of a unpleasant experience with the taxi driver and the inn owner who tried to make me rent their room. but i told them off and i wander by myself. spent some 2 hours in the noon time on this internet cafe and then i went to the huashan visitor’s centre, which is quite a good place to rest and kill time. had my lunch (instant noodle with some sausages and beef which i bought from a local mini supermarket). just sat down and relax there while watching documentary of the mountain.
yesterday i spent the day going to the museum of the terracotta warriors and the huaqing hot spring. when i was at the huaqing hot spring, i hired a tourist guide to explain the story related to the hot spring though i couldn’t fully understand her explanation as she couldn’t speak english. in the museum of the terracotta warriors though, there were many guides who can speak english, but i didn’t find the need to have one, as i can always read the english explanation that are available there. was quite a nice day and i went back to the hotel quite early cos i wanted to have a good rest for today’s trip to mt huashan.
i found xi’an to be a nice city, quite clean and modern, though the traffic is quite dangerous. there are many shopping centres with big brand names and even the normal shops along the streets are quite modern and clean too. i think this is due to the fact that xi’an is a very popular destination now. saw many tourists both foreign and chinese here. the center of the city, where the bell tower and drum tower are located is well lit up in the evening and looks beautiful.
initially, i was a little reluctant to climb the mountain at night but now i feel it’ll be okay. i will probably start at 10.30 at night despite the suggestion of many locals to start at about 12 o’clock midnight. i just want to walk slowly and i also not sure how much energy i have now cos i’ve not had any proper rest (sleep) in the last 13 hours. just hoped that there’ll be many climbers tonight so that i won’t be alone. i might want to eat something first now before i start my journey to the peaks of the mountain. the mountain has five peaks. i planned to go to the east peak first to watch the sunrise, then south peak (the highest) then west, middle, and north. there’s a cable car station on the north peak, so depends on whether i still have enough energy to climb down tomorrow, i might take the cable car down to the foot of the mountain.
huashan, here i come …
