MIGHTY MIGHTY HUASHAN!!!!

Climbing the Huashan I think is one of the craziest things I’ve done in my life! Never had an experience as beautiful, adventurous and thrilling as that. I think, we climbed the mountains sometime on the 11th of september or something like that. Don’t remember exactly...

Ok, first some facts about Huashan:
As one of the five best-known mountains in China, Mt. Huashan is located to the south of Huayin city, 120 kilometers east of Xian, in Shaanxi province, with an elevation of 2200 meters above sea level. In ancient times, Mt. Huashan was called Mt. Taihuashan. Seen from afar, the five peaks looks like five petals of a flower. Hence its name, Mt. Huashan (= five flowers)

So we started out to Huashan from Xian at about 3.30 in the afternoon hoping to get a bus and be there by around 6.30 in the evening. We had planned to climb the mountains through the night and get to the top of the east peak to watch the sun rise. Well, I am not too much of a trekker and the prospect of climbing the mountain in the night, by an unknown path with just torch lights and no guide dint sound too good to me. But being in a group, I had to succumb to the majority. More over who ever we spoke to about climbing the huashan through the night, advised us against it. Apparently it was quite dangerous to do that.

We had a good lunch, a relaxed day so we had enough energy saved up for the night. We even went shopping for torch lights. Anyway after all that we got to the bus station and had to wait till 7.00 in the evening to leave Xian. We traveled in a very cramped up small tempo and by 9.00 we reached the foothills of the mountain. There we had some dinner and after talking to a couple of locals about the climb, we started out at about 10.45 in the night. The entry fee to climb the Huashan was 100 Yuan.
Initially the climb was easy. It was really dark, but we had torch lights. The slope wasn't too steep and the path was paved. So we started out all happy and excited, even singing songs. Our pace was brisk and steady. The cool breeze blowing across our face, the sound of the water in the stream flowing by the path, the clear starry sky..... It was beautiful. We would stop may be every half a kilometer to rest and refuel ourselves. We had carried stuff to eat and drink.

Eventually as we started to climb ahead the slope started to get steeper. Of course the path was paved, but my legs were just giving way. I couldn't breathe straight. We stopped more often than earlier to rest our legs, but when we started again it only got worse. The boys kept pushing us to go on. They were really sweet. One time I thought, no more... I could have just sat there and waited for the rest to climb up and come back. At some point, the group split. So we were just 4 of us. We had to get to the east peak by sunrise; else the whole purpose of the climb would have been wasted. So we climbed on.... after a while the legs stopped to hurt. They were numb to the pain. Even our brains went numb I think. It was just the mountains, the darkness and us. We dint think, we only climbed. Even spoke little.

Actually the feeling was amazing. The climb was pretty difficult. At some places we had to hold on to our torch lights by our mouth and use both our hands to pull ourselves up with the help of the chained railings. Crossing the blue dragon mountain was another hell of an experience. The climb is almost vertical. Though steps have been cut into it they are less than 50cms wide and the treads are about 20cms wide. The risers are uneven. You look straight up when you climb. Looking back is out of question. This one place that we were climbing was surrounded by mountains all around. So whatever we screamed out there echoed so loud and clear that it came back to us five times from different directions.

We climbed for 7 hours without taking any substantial break. The latter half of the climb was so exhausting that without realizing it ourselves, we were swearing like crazy people. Gosh, what language we used and funny enough, it even proved to be a good vent for our exhaustion! I think the fact that we had no sleep made it even difficult. So whenever we would take little breaks to sit down, I would doze off. It was quite funny. Sit down, doze and have weird dreams, get up and get back to climbing....

So finally after 7 hours and 12 kms of climbing we reached the top of the east peak. We were there by 5.30 in the morning. Some people were already there, sitting or sleeping and many more were coming. It was really cold, especially because our clothes were wet from sweat. So we hired some fur jackets and waited for the sun to rise. Though the sky wasn’t clear the sun rise was beautiful. An orange ball emerging from behind the clouds. Standing on top of the peak watching the sun rise is a very exalting feeling. Like a battle won. A battle of sheer determination and human strength. And all the effort you put in to climbing is completely worth it. I have never seen mountains as treacherous as these. The cliffs , the peaks, the raw stone, so stubborn, bullying we little human being, laughing at us on our face.... once again I felt so miniscule before nature, humbled by it. The feeling is amazing.

We stuck around on the top till about 7.30 am and then started the descent. Its only when you climb down these mountains in the day light, that you realize what a feat you have accomplished. Its only then you see the magnitude of the climb. Thank god we climbed in the night, am so sure otherwise I would not have had the guts to do it during the day. Obviously we were not going to climb down the entire height of the mountain. We were too exhausted for that. So conveniently we took the cable car to reach down the mountain. The view from that too was simply breath-taking!

After we were down, we quietly had some breakfast, headed back to Xian. That afternoon we left for shanghai and slept 17 hours of deep and sound sleep in the train!

Travelling in China- my perception of their food.

Before I start writing about my food experiences in China I must admit that I am not a foodie…. I eat only to survive! So food was not at all a priority during my travel. I had already heard some not-so-great things about Chinese food (most of which turned out to be false, luckily!) before I started to travel. Therefore I was quite apprehensive about trying out new dishes. The one advantage for me was that I am a non-vegetarian which made eating much simpler. More over I am not fussy about what I eat.

I started my travel 4 days earlier than the rest of my group, spending my time in Hangzhou first. The family I stayed with would serve me bread and milk for breakfast. I usually ate lunch and dinner from the cafeteria at Zhejiang University, mostly comprising of white rice and some vegetable side dish. This is where I learnt how to use the chop sticks (which came of great use in our subsequent travel) and also started to enjoy eating with them. Using the chop sticks, I think, is somewhat addictive. Once you get the hang of it you don’t want to stop using them! Another thing new to me was that people finished dinner by about 6.00 pm in the evening which is a rather early time for dinner in India. So I had to stock up some snacks with me so I could have it in the night when I’d feel hungry.

I joined the rest of my traveling group in Beijing and from then on food was never an issue. I would just tag along with the others where ever they went to eat and eat just to fill my stomach. Most of the youth hostels we stayed in served food that catered to foreigners. For breakfast we usually had toast or some continental food. For lunch and dinner we’d settle for some fried rice or noodles. I enjoyed eating braised eggplant and tofu, the most common among the side dishes we had. I also ate a lot of chicken and beef as a part of my non-vegetarian menu. The one thing that I ate which I had not tried before was duck meat, and I quite liked it.

Other than the three meals in a day, we also gorged on a lot of ice creams to beat the heat. We always stocked ourselves with drinking water and bottled fruit juices available inexpensively in the super markets. Snacks like peanuts, chips, biscuits etc and chocolates were something we always carried with us. I also feasted on a lot of baked corn which was commonly available everywhere.

I being a caffeine addict, Coffee was the one thing I missed during my travel. The tea they serve in china is very different from the tea in India. Though I am not very fond of tea, I have now acquired a taste for Chinese tea. I realized that in China, they serve tea in restaurants as they would serve water in India. I mean that it’s that common!

In Shanghai, we discovered a Mc. Donald restaurant very close to the youth hostel we were staying in and so most of the time we ate our dinner there. It was quite a welcome change to eat burgers with French fries and other American food initially. But we ate so much of it that we were quite sick of the kind of food by the time we left Shanghai.

In the symposium, my staple diet was egg-fried rice with lot of fruits and juices. I also enjoyed ice cream for dessert and never missed having that!

All in all, Chinese food was never a hassle for me. I also realized that the Indian Chinese food was very different from the China Chinese food! The one thing I am really glad about is having learnt how to use the chop sticks. I even picked up a set of chop sticks for myself so I could use them at home, in Bangalore. Now when I eat in Chinese restaurants in Bangalore, I can’t help but compare it to the food we ate in China.