This past weekend, I ventured to Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, in the Shaanxi Province. I departed TEDA for Beijing on Thursday night via bullet train. Nothing should surprise me anymore in China, but I was surprised to see many grown men on the train without shirts on. I am used to seeing this phenomenon on the street, and it was a scorching hot day, but I was still a bit irked to see such on a train. I arrived at my friend Sarah's apartment and went straight to sleep in order to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the airport.
Day 1:
My friend Andrew and I were supposed to be flying out of the Beijing airport at 8 am, but air traffic control in China is notoriously bad. We boarded the plane on time, but then we sat for over an hour on the runway, which by China standards is actually not so horrible. Upon arrival in Xi'an, we took a taxi to Xi'an Jiao Tong University to meet up with some friends in our program and drop off some of our stuff before venturing to Mount Huashan. We took a city bus to the train station, then a charter bus out to the mountain, about 2 hours outside of the city.
Stocked with snacks and bottled water, we began our ascent of Mt Huashan, one of China's 5 sacred mountains, complete with 5 peaks. We started hiking around 3:45 and made it to the first peak (the North peak) around 7:30pm. We were very lucky that there were very few other hikers, as parts of the path were extremely narrow. There was a group of 3 Chinese students that we spent a large portion of the hike with, including the 1000 Foot Cliff, which is an 80 m stretch of extremely steep stairs.
Traditionally, many people hike up the mountain overnight to arrive at the East Peak for sunrise. We also wanted to be part of the sunrise tradition but were not keen on the whole hiking up a steep mountain in the middle of the night on no sleep part. Instead, after the North Peak, we ventured to the Central Peak for a hearty meal at the mountain's "best" restaurant. By the time we ate, it was about 9 pm and completely dark; we purchased flash lights and continued on to the East Peak, where we reached our lodging for the evening, the East Peak hotel, which is really a sparsely furnished hostel with minimal electricity and an outhouse. Our room assignment was a 10 person room filled with bunk beds and 5 Chinese people. After hiking all day in the heat and humidity, I was ready for sleep and a change of clothes. Unfortunately, I was sweating so much that my sweat literally soaked through my bookbag and my spare clothes were damp. Either way, I slept surprisingly well.
Day 2:
In order to see the sunrise, we woke up at 4:45 and checked out of the hostel, along with a large group of dutch women and pretty much every other hostel guest. The climb up to the East Peak only took about 5 minutes. It was amazing how many people were there that had hiked up overnight. We met up with some of our friends that had braved the overnight hike, and apparently it had been horribly crowded. After sunrise, we hiked to the South Peak, which is the highest peak at about 2150 meters. We then moved onto the West Peak and finally back to the North Peak, where we took a cable car down from the mountain. By the time we made it back to the North Peak, my legs were literally shaking from 2 days worth of steep stairs. At the base of the mountain, I saw a kid with a Georgia Tech hat on, but he didn't know what Georgia Tech was, just that his uncle had sent it to him as a gift from America. Due to our early start, we were down the mountain by 10 am and back into Xi'an by 1 pm.
Upon arrival in Xi'an, we met up with our friend Kyla to tour the Muslim Quarter. Xi'an is host to China's largest Muslim population. We ate a delicious lunch of spicy eggplant and hot and sour potatoes. Muslim street food consisted mainly of meat on a stick, which I found to be less than appetizing. The Muslim Quarter is host to Xi'an's big street market, which sells a lot of silk products due to Xi'an being the historic start of the Silk Road. We also toured the Great Mosque while we were there, which interestingly looks much more like a Chinese temple than a Mosque. We also caught a glimpse of both the bell and drum towers.
After the Muslim Quarter, we checked into our hostel and finally changed clothes before continuing onward with our sight seeing. Kyla took us to bike around the city wall after dark. It's a very popular tourist activity to bike the city wall at night, and with good reason. The entire wall, which surrounds the old part of the city, is lit up by red lanterns at night, and all of the guard towers are lit up as well. Kyla and I biked around on a tandem bicycle, which was a lot of fun.
After biking, we were famished again and ate dinner at an Indian restaurant near the Big Goose Pagoda. After dinner, we met up with other group members in Xi'an at a bar. One of the Xi'an students is actually a grad student at Georgia Tech!
Day 3:
A group of 5 departed for the Terra Cotta Soldiers at 8:45 am. After a 1.5 hour bus ride, we arrived at the site, where we then had to walk half an hour through touristy shops before actually arriving at the soldiers. The Soldiers are in a huge pavilion, which was roasting hot and full of people. Seeing the soldiers was pretty amazing, but unfortunately, the site provided very little historic information. There were 3 chambers of soldiers total, but the first one was the most impressive. We spent a few hours there and then caught the bus back to Xi'an. After a late lunch and some rest, we ventured to the Xi'an Folk House. The folk house is basically a tea house and an artist commune where many local artists have studios. We attended a tea sampling at the tea house, where we got to try 6 different teas. Around 6:30 pm, we had to venture back to the Xi'an airport. Overall, it was a great trip; we got to see some cool sites and spend time with friends. It was definitely a nice break from the lab.
