Driving Xi'an

Hua Shan (华山) from the Highway. The apartments above the police station I waited at while one of my friends tried to track down his towed car. Until then I didn't know there was such things as parking violations in China. A bridge over the Yellow River (黄河), connecting Shaanxi (陕西) to Shanxi (山西). Same bridge. Went to Xi'an (西安) for a few days at the end of my stay in China. We drove there from Linfen (临汾), stopping off in Yuncheng (运城) on the way. The three day trip turned into four was mostly full of driving, visiting and eating, and we sure did eat good. I say turned into four days, because when our car got towed for parking illegally, we kinda had to wait to get it back.

Chinese Drive Through

While in Xi'an (西安) for a few days I came across the first drive through I had seen in China. This also happened to be the first drive through my two friends had ever seen, so in response they immediately swung a U-turn, pulled up to the window and ordered three ice creams.

The "Sky Plank Walk" (长空栈道)

"思过崖" - Siguo Cliff. This is what's at the other end of the path, it's the only way to get here. Siguo can be translated as "reflect on ones' faults".


There's a little cave shrine as well; sorry I forgot to take note of its name.





The famed Huashan (华山) plank walk (长空栈道); I had to try it. It's actually not really as scary as it may seem, but maybe it should have been because this is China and safety isn't always a top concern. As you can see there are harnesses and such so as long as you work the carabiners right you should be safe. But some people found them too cumbersome and took some pretty large liberties while moving along the cliff-side.

Climbing Hua Shan (华山)

The long line of people all trying to summit the mountain at night.




The narrowest part of the climb.


Various items being sold along the way.




I wish I had brought a tent like that guy.


sunrise, nothing spectacular, it was too cloudy really.










The West Peak (西峰)





The West Peak (西峰)


The West Peak (西峰)


The West Peak (西峰)


The West Peak (西峰)


The West Peak (西峰)






The West Peak (西峰)



The South Peak (南峰)


The South Peak (南峰), which is the highest


The South Peak (南峰), which is the highest


The South Peak (南峰), which is the highest



Went to Hua Mountain (华山) with a couple students. The mountain is really beautiful and a pretty intense climb, but it was way too crowded. We ascended the mountain at night, because that's the thing to do apparently. Most people were hoping to get to the eastern peak (东峰) to watch the sunrise but around four in the morning we decided to call it quits and sleep on the ground till it got light out. I would not recommend climbing at night, it felt really unsafe and you couldn't see anything. But once the sun rose things were much better, the mountain really is spectacular with these sheer white cliffs. We saw a good portion of the mountain, but it was pretty slow going because my one friend hurt her foot pretty bad (walking in the dark). Altogether we spent about 24 hours on the mountain and only got about an hour and a half of sleep. It was totally worth it, but I'd do things a little differently the second time.