Today was the day we climbed Mt. Huashan. We're talking sheer cliffs, high humidity and lots of stairs to climb. This was seriously our route to getting to the begining of the hike to Mt. Huashan: Bus to Train Station, Train to Huashan, taxi to park entrance, mini bus to gondola, gondola to the mountainside.
This was quite a journey in itself. By the time we got to the gondola we were drenched in sweat. Mt Huashan is one of the 5 sacred mountains in China and is amazing. It reminds me of Yosemite but the mountain peaks are higher. There are old stone steps that wind up and around Mt Huashan. Leavitt and Nat went all the way to East and South Peak.
Remember the movie "Kung Fu Panda"? It's like that, but with more Asian tourists. Leavitt and Nat conquered the mountain by doing what only the bold can do-- walk the plank. Yep, there are these planks and sometimes carved out steps that wind around the sheer cliffs on the mountain face. It would be like walking a very thin walk way that wraps around El Capitan in Yosemite. One bad slip and you will be dropping a few thousand feet to the trees below. I thought Angel's Landing at Zions was wicked-nuts! You can buy a little harness that goes around you in case you do accidently make that slip. As they were walking the planks around the mountain, things got a little more intense when they had to pass people along the way. One dude didn't even have a harness (he had a death wish). My story was a little more tame.
I took my time heading up the mountain and ended up more in the shaded area. It's really unbelievable how many Asian tourists are there. What's worse is that I had more people approach me to take pictures with them than ever before. It got to the point where it was boring just standing there and smiling with them. So I usually whipped out a peace sign or a thumbs up and did some cheesey grin. They would put their arm around me as if we were good friends and just wanted to snap a photo with a white person. Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what they wanted, a soggy white person with unbelievably dirty shorts and a stupid look on their face.
There's no hiding ourselves, people are curious about us North Americans and it's impossible to avoid the constant stares. Which is a bummer, because you can't do anything that could be potentially embarrassing to yourself. So no picking your nose or adjusting your bra in public. Once the three of us met up again we made our way back to the railway station.
Leavitt said it best, "I feel like I'm wearing a wet diaper!" Our clothes were clinging to us and we had flies circling around us. What made us feel better was that we didn't attract nearly the same buggy attention as some of the locals (that would be an ewe factor of 10).
We waited for the train to finally get there after being delayed. Since we don't speak Chinese, everytime the railway lady got on the intercom we would jump up with absolute desperation to hop on to that train. Several times being turned down, we would walk back to our seats, defeated. She then called again for the 4th time, but we didn't want to get our hopes up, we were much to sweaty and tired for that. Then one guy said, "You go". Apparently everyone noticed our multiple rejections and made sure we knew when to get on the train. Our train ride back was interesting.
We met some people our age and somehow it ended up into a mini concert. I had my travel uke on me and so we started busting out jams. You can't beat a Chinese dude singing "Hey Jude" to a ukulele! We got a lot of curious stares and some smiles as well. I think the biggest hit was Surfin USA though-- Nat and I rocked that one.
We finished our night by eating a real chinese dinner. It consisted of noodles that looked like brains, some mushrooms, dumplings, rice and of course my chaser, a Coke. It was good, I love the dumplings and everything else was pretty tasty. Keep in mind, we did avoid the other foods on the menu: eel, chicken feet, duck tongues, abalone, pig tongue and tripe. We'll save that for another day.
Tomorrow is the Terracotta Warrior day and we take the overnight train to Beijing where we actually officially meet up with our group. Oddly enough, we met some girls here at the hostel who will also be taking the same tour (they're from Holland). It should be a lot of fun. These past few days have been so physically demanding with the intensity of the heat and all the running around that we've done.
At the end of the day, we've collapsed on our beds happy. One thing I will say for myself, I am so glad I can't smell very well because those city buses--- oooeee!
Emily the Mountaineer
P.S.Here are some phrases on people's shirts that were obviously poor translations:
"Jenni Girls Smile"
"Original Comfortablement"
"Everting You Want From a Detergent and More"
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