We took the 10:30pm train from Xian and arrived at the base of Hua Shan (Shan means "Mountain" in Chinese) at 1:30am. There are only five other local hikers and after a brief chat at the base we started getting up the mountain for the sun-rising. The first 4 km was pretty flat and we chatted along the way. Yan and I started leading the pack and made to the North Peak by 4am, beating the Lonely Planet estimated 3.5 hours, we decided to head to East Peak to catch better sun rising position so we spent another two hours to get there. It wasn't full moon but the moon is very bright and the reflection from the rock is almost bright enough to walk without headlamp. A dim view of the summits create another layer of excitment... I know I know it is only 2200m but still it is my first hike in China, and this mountain has been famous of thousand of years. I know it would soon to be my best night in China.

About 10 minutes before arriving to the East Peak. I almost freak out when I saw three static bodies or some sort emerging from the dark. It turns out there are three hikers sleeping in the wood and they look really really tired. They said the wind is very strong at the top and advised us to stay there with them until the sun-rise gets close. Well we are almost to the top so we went up to the peak anyway and found a good spot with acceptable wind chill and to have a breakfast to welcome the sun rise.

The view is stunning all the way, the granite towers like a narrowed Yosemite and the rock texture is really smooth compare with those in Squamish. As far as I know there are no recorded vertical ascent around the area. I kept spotting for so many climbable lines... Needless to say I keep dreaming myself on the potential routes and I told myself I must come back to climb them one day.

We spent another 8 hours hiked up to all the peaks around Hua Shan and back to the base by 3pm. I didn't feel too tired but once got on the mini-bus I went unconscious all the way back to Xi'an. It is probably my greatest day in China.


Hua Shan, the range of granite towers, has been famous for thousand of years and where a lot of Chinese history, fiction, movie are based on. One of the temple with the fantastic scenic



The reason we are there









Locks are brought up by local hikers who left them at the top of the mountain, means "Healthy and Security for the family".



The amazing "Skyline Cliffway", one of the Hua Shan legend, it was built over thousand years ago, not for the faint of heart!



There are many tiny temples cave