Day 50: Waking up to a Mountain Sunrise and Walking on the Plank in the Sky

Our next morning started bright and early, around 7 am. Some of the people in our room had already been stirring before that, but I ignored it until my own alarm went off. I looked around, expecting the others to start moving around....but it appeared like I was the only one who had set an alarm. To my chagrin, I found my computer, and therefore my phone, didn't charge correctly for some reason overnight, so I turned my computer on to try to charge my phone more.

After about 10 minutes, I woke everyone up. Jessica was actually already awake, since she had indeed set an alarm a bit earlier than mine, but we headed out. The sunrise spot was already crowded, to our surprise. Apparently lots of people had hiked up the mountain overnight.

I tried to get toward the front, but it was difficult. Even climbing on a rock, I was having trouble seeing over people. After a bit, Dom said that Pablo was trying to get my and Jessica's attention. It turned out he had gotten a better spot towards the top. We watched the sun come up over the mountains in wonder, and snapped a bunch of pictures at various points in the sunrise. Eventually, I had to look away....because, you know, you're NOT supposed to stare directly at the sun (apparently the people around us didn't care though).

My first sunrise picture- even though it was off to the side, it's one of my favorites 

After the sunrise, we got our backpacks and checked out of our room. Dom, who had paid the deposit, got his money back. Then we went for breakfast at the same mountaintop restaurant that we had gone to the day before. You could get hard boiled eggs, a rice and bean thick soup, and a bun to stuff pickled vegetables into for 30 quai. It wasn't the best breakfast I've ever had (the soup was a bit too thick, and pickled anything for breakfast is kind of bleh), but it was very filling food.
Around us, many of the other customers were falling back asleep, and we joked around that they needed to go back into the hotel to go to sleep.

After we headed out, we found out that we were very close to the famous "Plank in the Sky" attraction that Mt Huashan was famous for. We were a bit nervous, especially due to the fact that apparently you were on a plank jutting out of the mountain with no other supports, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

There was a long line for the attraction, and we also found out there was a 30 quai fee. Dom opted out of it, but Pablo, Jessica and I were still up for it.

Once we got far enough ahead, we found out the vertical descent down the cliff had metal bars to help you stay put. Each person had a harness put on them with two carabineers. As you move along, you unclip one carabineer at a time to put on the next section of the cable, so you can move, but you are always attached to the cable at some point. Other than that, there was surprisingly little safety precautions....if someone wanted to jump off the mountain, there was little to nothing to stop them.

Pablo prepping himself for the descent

The line for the plank

While going down the staircase, I was somewhat smushed by someone going up the staircase....yes, there was two way traffic on this, which is very crazy, I agree. When we got down to the plank, they had two different cables for people to attach their carabineers too, one for people going out and one for people coming back. As the three of us got about halfway through the first part, there were sample pictures on one ledge of people posing with their arms off of the mountain. So, we were practically obligated to do so ourselves....

Getting to the end, we found a beautiful view of the area below, as well as a temple, and several sticks holding up massive rocks. (It makes no sense, scientifically or common sense wise, but it's more common than you would think....) The only way to get back was to go the way we had come. It was definitely harder going that way, as we had to be on the outside, practically hugging strangers in order to hold on to the chains, and constantly reclip our carabineers to the next spot. A lot of people ended up helping me reclip the carabiners in order to ensure safety.

As we progressed, we found no one else was coming down, and it turned out that the line had dwindled down to nothing while we were on our adventure.

Finally, we were back at the top, relieved that we had survived our trip down and across the mountain. It was truly one of the best experiences that I have had so far in China, and a great story to tell in the future!

We started to head to the next two peaks, the West and South Peaks, the latter of which was the tallest peak out of Mt Huashan's five peaks. So lots more stairs with chains on the side were climbed as we made our merry way down and back up.

Mountain kittens between west and south peak

All of us at South Peak, the highest peak of Mt Huashan

Tree with lots of people's wishes

Guy walking down the mountain with two huge containers of water on a long stick....and me accidentally photobombing Jessica, as well as views near the East Peak

After we got to the top of West Peak, the last peak we needed to climb was Central Peak. We started making our way there, and found a guy with a microphone, who was drawing people's names in Chinese characters using animals. He was extremely skilled, and we watched him for a few minutes in awe.

We looked at a map, and found out that Central Peak was far away from us....but close to the Devil's Ladder that we had passed the day before. We wanted to go to all five, so we started making our way there. However, looking out, we realized just how long it would take, and we decided against it.



We made our way back to the West Peak to take the cable car down. We tried to get a student discount, but the lady wouldn't accept our CQU cards because they didn't have our pictures on them. We had to pay 120 quai for the ride down, which was a bit expensive but worth it.

Heading back to West Peak, and the view after we headed out of the mountain in the cable car

Heading into the subterranean to get on the cable car

We found out that this cable car was the first of its kind in the world, and we were very excited for it. As we went down, we saw that it was on a continually moving cable, and we had to jump in the car. However, we got a private car with seats for just the four of us, so it was worth the little extra cost for sure. As we went down, we were astonished by the view, and realized just how far up we had climbed.

About halfway through, we pulled into a midway station. We thought other people were getting on in the other station, but it turned out that it was just for maintenance, and to put us on a new cable.

At the end of the cable car, there was a gift shop. Jessica almost got some 3d postcards, but decided against it. I did decide to get a phoenix paper cutting though, since I had had my eye on one back at the Terra Cotta warriors.

After everything, we headed out in majestic style,  noting the amazing walkways, as well as a small roller coaster, which seemed counterintuitive.....why do you need a roller coaster when there is a mountain right there?

Gorgeous exitways

We needed to catch the bus back to where we had left our hotel before, so we paid the 40 quai, and waited for the bus to fill up so we could head back. Around 30 minutes later, we were back in the same neighborhood. At first we were confused, but then realized we were close. We went back and forth on where to eat, but decided to go where there were pictures on the windows....however, the menu didn't have pictures, so we ended up going outside and pointing at the windows to order. I got one of the mutton sandwiches, and I tried some of Pablo's kidney dish, and some of Jessica's noodles.

We then picked up our stuff from the hotel, and we grabbed a taxi to the train station. At the train station, there was a beautiful statue of a dragon and a phoenix intertwined. There was also one with people sitting in chairs, and in some of the "empty" chairs in the statue, real security guards were sitting, which struck me as amusing.

We got our tickets, which were for in 20 minutes from the time we got them, so we had to rush through security, and we waited for the gates to open, several of us taking a bathroom break. We were at the train station of Xi'an that had high speed trains, so we were relieved the journey didn't take long. We caught a taxi to the hotel, and relaxed for a bit, taking much needed showers before heading out to dinner.

We decided to go to a pizza place that wasn't supposed to be far, but turned out to be farther than expected. On the way, Pablo saw fish inside the Super 8 hotel that interested him. He said he had one when he was younger, and he had a habit of keeping aquariums in general. It was called an arowana fish, and he said that they were relatively expensive, so he was surprised to see so many there. He told a story of the one he had jumping out of the aquarium the first night, and after he put it back, it seemed to trust him more. Apparently his fish ended up dying of a bacterial disease.

Arowana fish

Downtown Xi'an

We eventually found the pizza place, which was called "The Cyclery", and had a lot of bicycle décor. It was also a western restaurant of all sorts, with American and European dishes. The waiter brought out Ipads for us to order from, and I ordered bacon and mushroom pizza and a brownie. The guys were looking at the beer, and an Australian guy who happened to be in the restaurant gave them recommendations and joined us at our table.

We talked with the guy, whose name was Chris, for a while, about everything from politics to poetry for a few hours over the meal. He was an interesting character for sure, and it was really good to have new company to talk to. As we ate, the service and quality of the food was impeccable, and the waiter had the utmost politeness. The prices weren't too high either. If you're ever in Xi'an, I would highly recommend this restaurant if you're craving western food.

About 10 pm, we said our goodbyes, and exchanged Wechats with Chris, heading back to the hotel.

The others decided to get KFC ice cream, but I was too tired, and went back in the hotel to wait for Jessica to get back so I could let her in. After a bit of talking when she got back, we both headed to sleep, to get ready for the next day.

-Zoe