Xi'an a lot in China

With 19 days in China, there was a lot to see and do and so little time. I slept on The Great Wall of China and hiked 4-5 hours along an un-restored section, climbed Mt Huashan, saw the Terracotta Warriors, caught up with my pen-pal of 8 years Wenting in Shanghai, cycled for 2 hours around the Xi'an city wall, watched the first session of the movie 'Transformers', got myself involved in a scam where i ended up paying a ridiculous amount of money for tea! Cathay Pacific airlines lost my bag for 30 hours, I spent over 34 hours in two trains travelling throughout China, spent a day in a water city called Suzhuo, had my first bout of food poisoning and visited many more temples and gardens.
Everyday has been so busy and so exciting (except for the food poisoning part). I am so glad i learnt Chinese at school as i have been using it everywhere, talking to the locals, ordering food and bartering in the markets.

Sleeping on the Greatest Wonder on Earth
Yes i did it. A night that i will never forget and a hike the next day along the Jinshaling/Simatai section of the Wall. I joined a group of seven other people where during the first day we went to a few interesting sites around Beijing, but this was just a big teaser as we were itching to go to The Great Wall that afternoon. We arrived a couple of hours before sunset and during that time, a couple of us hiked along a small section of the Wall that we found out later was actually a military zone, well we actually just ignored the sign. When it got dark, we made our way back to the village of just 130 people. A farmers wife cooked us all an enormous dinner consisting of many dishes with countless dumplings and rice wine. Later we walked back up onto the Wall to one of the lookout towers, drank beer, urinated into a bucket and tossing it over the Wall, squished 10cm scorpions and tried to brush away the many insects that descended onto our torch lights. It was a warm night and due to the fact that there were scorpions crawling around under our feet, we decided to pitch our tents in the dark to have a least some protection from them and the fleas. With 4-5 hours sleep, flea bites as well as an excitement to trek along the Wall, we left at 7am after not seeing the sunrise due to cloud and pollution, but still it was very peaceful. Most of the Jinshaling section has not been restored giving it more character as well having no other foreign tourists walking along it. During the 3 hour hike we were the only group on the wall along with the odd local. We went through 32 lookout towers where at least half were really steep and quite hard to get to. We finished the tour with a 1 minute flying fox (zip-line) ride to the ground, crossing a huge river. Got back 3 hours later, then had a much needed shower.

Warriors will fall, heroes will rise
After coming to China 8 years ago with my school, i never got to see the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. However this time i made sure i was going there. I joined a tour that turned out to be just 3 of us which was excellent as it was pretty much a private tour. After visiting the burial ground of the 1st Emperor, we made our way to the tourist packed entrance gate. There are 3 main pits (discovered so far) where the Warriors are held. All the pits were destroyed by peasant uprising after the 1st Emperor had died and there is so much restoration to be done (and more digging), however they are also waiting on new technology to keep the coloured paint permanent on the Warriors that haven't been dug out yet. The 3rd pit is the big one where 2000 Warriors are visible and a further 6000 are yet to be uncovered. The place was packed with people and it took a while to work my way to the main viewing area to have a look. I was actually very lucky as this is the time to see them. During the holidays and especially the Olympics next year, you have to wait in line 1-2 hours to get a 30 second look from the front of the 3rd pit. It is absolutely amazing how much work it took to make these slightly larger than life size Warriors and i am so glad i came to have a look and learn about them.

Next stop is Mongolia for 5 days and then Russia for a further 16 on the 'Vodka Train'. I met my group in Beijing and we all can't wait to go. Toot toot!

Mt. Huashan

Drizzle, an early start and a 3 hour overcrowded mini-bus ride is what started a day that i will never forget. Mt. Huashan (or different spelling, Huangshan mountain), nearly 2km's high with 5 main peaks is an image most common in traditional Chinese paintings. Most paintings of mountains are most likely those of Mt. Huashan.
Starting at the bottom, i joined a group of 5 Chinese university students. One spoke very basic English and i can basically try and speak basic Chinese. Later these students fizzled down to 2 as Mt. Huashan is very physically demanding.
Up we went, up and up and up. So many steps, some really steep and others were wet and slippery as we were climbing inside a cloud most of the morning. There are many temples, massive boulders and countless waterfalls along the 4 hour trek that eventually took us to the lowest peak. This is where you can pay $15AUS and get here by cable car in under 5 minutes. That's cheating and the hike ended up being well worth it.
From having hardly no-one during the first few hours to having hundreds of people, fit and full of energy in-front of us felt a little touristy, but we kept going. Legs fatigued but starting to get into a rhythm, we scrambled past the bulk to try and reach every peak this mountain has to offer in the 4 hours of daylight we had left. The cable-car peak, North, South, East and West peaks, all having their own dramatic cliffs and flora where they were all breathtaking and unique. Climbing "The Dragon Ridge", 1 metre wide and about 300 metres long with steps, handrails and 2-way traffic in-between two peaks is one of the best views i have ever seen.
Climbing to the North Peak, the furthest and highest one out of the 5 was a momentous effort. Once again there were so many steps. I have never been this high before and seeing clouds below you moving around and the sun beating down on you made me feel on top of the world, and hey, i was!
In-between the West and North Peak, is a path called 'Changkongzhandao' (The cliff side plank path). This path is pretty much the whole reason for me coming to Mt. Huashan. Originally seeing photos of this awesome sight in an email when i was working, i decided i had to come and take a look for myself. The path leads to a small lookout where it is about 70 metres in length. Once you reach the end, you just come back and continue on your way. It is a cliff face. 90 degrees. To get across, they have whacked large nails into the side of the cliff and placed planks of wood over the top for you to cross. The path is about 40cm wide! There is also a chain nailed to the rock for you to hold onto as you make your way across. For $5AUS you can choose to hire a safety harness (you would be absolutely stupid, i mean insane not to have one). Half of the path are planks of wood and the other half are foot holes carved into the rock. As the people i was with were too scared to go, i went alone taking the photos myself trying not to drop the camera with my hands shaking as if i had just drunk 20 cups of coffee.
I took my time and on the way back another brave bloke was coming towards me to do the same walk. I asked him to take a photo of me and he explained to me that the ultimate photo to take on this path is a pose where you lean back facing the cliff wall (because of your harness), your body 45 degrees, relying 100% on your harness with both arms waving in the air! The ground by the way is 1km down.
The best i could do was lean 45 degrees over the edge but my hands were stuck firmly to the strap connecting my body to the wall. I couldn't let go, my brain was telling me "Go on, do it", but my hands wouldn't budge. Now i see myself as an adventurous person willing to try anything, but this was the first time in my short years where my brain and body disagreed with one another and it felt really strange.
I hit my limit where i had no idea what my limit was up until now. And I'm actually quite glad knowing it's hanging off a cliff relying on a piece of metal and strap, 1km up on a plank of wood, now that can't happen too often, can it? There is a saying 'Feel the fear and do it anyway'. That was actually shuffling across those wooden planks.
The adrenalin rush i got from that and hiking Mt. Huashan lasted all the way back down to the cable car where it was 7:00pm and the perfect time to leave for a 3 hour bus ride back to Xi'an.
Mt Huashan, 5 peaks and 5 blisters on my feet, coincidence? I think not.