Xian – Hua Shan Sweat Sesh and the Infamous Warriors

Xian started with a bang, we ended up at a hostel that was built in the confines of an ancient monastery and had character and comfort to boot, a rarity in the world of budget accommodation. We splurged on a private which was a stroke of luck after our little train ride and it turned out to be awesome. We slept for twelve hours straight and woke up with enough zeal to take on the ancient city walls.

XIAN ANCIENT CAPITAL

The old city used to be situated behind massive fortified walls that were erected to protect the city against raiding barbarians (in this case the, Mongolians). The wall encases the ‘old city’ and encloses only a fraction of the area that was ancient Xian. We climbed to the top of the wall and decided to do the most romantic thing possible: rent a tandem bicycle and rip the wall to pieces. No need to explain other than it was a riot and one of the funnest things we did on the whole trip and I am now looking forward to making a tandem bike my primary means of transportation upon my return to Canada.

Bad Ass Motherfucker on a Tandem

TERRACOTTA WARRIORS

Our next little adventure circled around the world famous terracotta warriors which is probably the most famous archeological find of the last hundred years. Buried deep in the earth were thousands of warriors in full battle gear each with different faces, armor, weapons and other features to make sure that no two warriors were exactly the same. A painstaking feat that could only be considered a civil service project under the hand of an Emperor. After Emperor Qin died he was buried along with all his warriors to ensure he had a safe trip into the afterlife. The warriors laid in desolate isolation for a few thousand years until they were uncovered by a farmer digging a well in the seventies. With a backstory like this and the overall fame of the sight we knew we would be hitting up a massive tourism site but we knew it would be worth it.

We hopped a local bus because we were too cheap, or savvy as we like to say, to hit up the warriors on a tour. When you arrive via public bus you have to work your way through a few hundred souvenir stands and food hawkers before you get to the main gates, after which there are no street vendors to be found. We entered the grounds, watched a quick educational flick on the history of the site and made our way to the three pits that make up the site. We started with number three, the smallest of the pits which encases some of the higher class warriors made with real vigour and usually accompanied by battle horses. Site two was next and had a fairly impressive array of half dug up components of the ancient terra-cotta army. We saved the best for last and hit up hall one which is the size of an airport hanger housing thousands upon thousands of warriors standing in battle position. The craftsmanship behind the warriors is truly evident here and the scale of the project is really put into perspective when you are looking into a pit full of clay warriors that would easily match the population of a small Canadian town. We came prepared with the 70-200 which let us catch a glimpse into the details of some of the warriors which was so varied, some coated in ancient, white cracked paint others staring bleakly at the soldier in front of them, it is insane to see that each warrior is unique! Impressive and jam packed with people was the way we felt about the warriors but an absolute must do for anyone passing through China.

Something like 8000 in this pit alone

Our last night in Xian proper led us to our worst enemy, the train station. We needed to get to Beijing and the only way there was train or plane. After reading our other stories I fully give you the right to call us total fools for attempting to purchase train tickets for the twenty four hour ride but we are on a budget and needed to give it a chance. We got to the front of the line and was told the train was sold out, something we didn’t know was possible in China, surely there was some standing room tickets? In the wake of the high speed rail disaster, which happened to occur the same night we were cruising to Xian, the authorities clamped down and made sure the trains weren’t oversold, likely a temporary restriction. We made our way back to our temporary home and looked into flights which, although only an hour, were about three hundred dollars total. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise but it sure didn’t come cheap. We decided to wait until last minute and planned our next adventure, the climbing of the sacred Taoist mountain of Hua Shan, a few hours outside of Xian.

A well preserved warrior up close

MOUNT HUA SHAN

When we were in Vietnam visiting our pal the Nuge he recommended the climb and warned us that it wasn’t easy but it was well worth it. Our decision was made, we were going to climb the mountain under the beaming hot Chinese sun, spend an evening on top of the mountain, get up super early and catch a glimpse of the famous sunrise. We arrived via local bus again around 2PM, also known as the peak heat of the day. Climbing Hua Shan sounds easy on paper, it’s only 2000 meters high and consists of a six kilometre path made up of concrete stretches and man made stairs. The combination of heat and around 50000000 stairs made this one of the most difficult and strenuous treks we had done to date. To spare you the sad details, we sweated, sweared, and stumbled our asses up the thousands of stairs, some of which are basically vertical, to the top of the mountain in time to secure a room at a fleabag hotel and watch the sunset. The hole we stayed in was an eighteen person dorm with wooden planks for mattresses but we would only be sleeping until three AM when the rest of our pilgrimage would begin.

On Stair 320450 and Ready to Kill Each Other

We both awoke to the sharp ring of our iPod alarm at three in the morning after catching about two hours of sleep in our pimping bunk, our necks sore from using our day bags as pillows. We threw our clothes in our bags and got rolling ahead of the rest of the people crashed out on the myriad of rag tag beds jammed into the room. It was noticeably cooler climbing in the night which was a welcome change to the sweaty heat that plagued our hike the day before. Seeing as we were on top of a mountain there were no facilities to wash ourselves up in so we smelled like a tonne of roses I am sure. We reached the pinnacle of the east peak for sunset which was worth every drop of sweat we put into seeing it. Hua Shan is surrounded by mountains and the altitude seems to set the area apart from the smoggy valley below and we were treated to an amazing sunrise over the mountains in the horizon. We pushed on, determined to permanently lock a padlock on a chain at the highest point of the mountain, a Chinese ritual that is used to give friends and family good luck. After buying our lock we had it engraved with our names and wandered up the remaining steps of the mountain to clamp our lock on the chain. Mission successful, we made it to the top, slapped on the lock and explored the rest of the mountain top. Perhaps the most interesting was the Vast Sky Plank Walk which is a narrow line of shaky 2×8 planks held in by dodgy rebar off the side of the mountain. People going for the full experience pilgrimage usually walk this walk, now aided with the help of a safety harness, an addition that only came five years ago. I can’t imagine how many poor souls fell to their certain death from this gangplank that was a disaster waiting to happen. Since I am shit scared of such heights we passed on doing the walk and headed down the mountain and back to the confines of our hostel to have one of the best showers on the trip, scrubbing a few layers of sweat off never felt so good.

Vast Sky Plank Walk - Looks like a deathwish to me

Locked and Loaded, good luck coming your way

Left a little legacy on Hua Shan

After cleaning and perking up we got into a taxi driven by a psychopath to the airport, we were told it would take an hour and we got there in twenty minutes which gave us plenty of time to find a flight to Beijing, our first point of contact in China a little under a month ago.

No Candy Coating in China