So, I've been traipsing all over China for two weeks, and haven't had a chance to tell you about it!
I'm going to try to remember it all and get it all in with out writing a whole novel in the process. =)
After spending a week in Hangzhou, I traveled with my friend, the amazing Hannah R. and our Chinese friend Summer to Xi'an. We took an overnight train leaving at 4 and arriving and 9am.... It was a good trip and I slept like a rock. Once we arrived in Xi'an, our first stop was the Terracotta Warriors! One quick bus ride out there and we were in business. It was real hot, but because we traveled to northern China overnight the humidity was low and I appreciated that!
The Warriors were pretty awesome. It was spectacular to see the reconstructed statues, but also really sad. This emperor, this ruler in ancient China was so afraid of death and what would happen to him once he could no longer control his life that he built this huge collection of 'things' that would be with him in death. These things that are still on earth, that have crumbled into pieces and are barely recognizable anymore.... (sigh...)
But the idea of these ruins being older than Jesus was pretty cool. And the area is an ongoing archeological dig... which meant that the crumbled warriors are still being excavated and reassembled. So awesome!
After seeing the warriors we headed into town, stopped at Starbucks, and then hit up Muslim street. A famous food street that has all the local favorites, and specialties of Xi'an. We had mutton soup, and homemade yogurt. All delicious. Then, we headed back to the train to go out to Huashan mountain.
We got some sleep, and then the next morning we hit the mountain!! Our hike started at 5am and boy.... did it start. The trail started off as all uphill path ways that made my calf muscles scream. But that wasn't the worst part of it.... Once the uphill finished, the stairs began. All vertical, super steep stairs that never ended.... Once the steps started, so did the chains. The paths had chain railings, and on the steep vertical stairs they were necessary for clambering up the 'steps'. It was really quite like rock climbing. And the names of these places wasn't much better... There was the 1000 foot gorge. Where all you could see walking thru it was a sliver of sky above. And then there was the sky ladder. A shorter climb but vertical like a ladder and sky above. I could tell I was alive the whole way up because my muscles were shouting their opposition to what I was putting them through, and my heart was pounding both in my chest and in my ears. I will never climb it again, but I am so glad I did for a few reasons. First, the view from the top!! Oh.... the wonders and majesty that is G0d's creation took my breath away. The peaks that floated in the sky and stretched for ever and were layered like a bunched up sheet across the land. Second, the experience at the top called "Plank Road in the Sky". There are no words to describe how terrified, excited, stoked, 'bahhhh' I was to do this. Let me paint you a picture.... Harness around your upper body. Both arms strapped in and clipped in the front. Then you have two carabineers on straps leading from those chest clips that you use to connect to the side of the mountain. Imagine walking a dog, but you are the dog. Then, you climb down a stone/ metal bar latter to a wooden plank bolted to the side of the mountain where there is pure rock on one side and nothing but airspace on the other. 6000 plus meters of drop under 12 inches of wood. It was breath catching, nerve wracking, heart racing, eye opening and any other awe emotion you can think of. Hannah said at one point 'I can't open my eyes wide enough!' And that's really the only way to describe it. There was so much nature to take in... And no way to really capture it except in person. My memory holds that beauty now....and that is enough. I was a dare devil as per the norm, and clipped myself to a bolt and then leaned back to hang off this wall, and I sat down on the wood plank to feel nothing but air beneath my soles.... to understand the grandeur that is a mountain. I could use a whole book worth of adjectives and metaphors to describe this experience, but nothing would suffice. So I'll leave it here.
We had to hike to a neighboring peak and then took a cable car down to the bottom. Bus back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and headed back to Xi'an, and caught an overnight train to Beijing. I was in Xi'an area for a total of 1.5 days. It was a whirl wind tour for sure, but I enjoyed. (once I stopped wheezing from the mountain climbing)
Until next time.
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