A Walk up Hua Shan

Chinese traditionally revere their mountains. In classic paintings, misty mountains establishing the distant background are de rigueur.

Peace. Serenity. Spirituality.

Nine mountains across China are accorded a special spiritual status. Steps carved into the rock for the spiritual pilgrims to climb their heights. The mountain will have temples and shrines in its heights, above the lives of the teaming masses...

By rail, Hua Shan is a two hour train ride from Xian, the ancient Chinese capital where the an army of 10,000 Terra Cotta Soldiers slept underground for centuries.

I start on the train, begin the journey grounded in the teaming masses below heaven. "Hard seat" tickets. 3^rd class. Solidly with "the people". No seats are open when we board, and so we stand, as do another third of the other passengers without seats. We watch the scenery stream by from our vantage point between cars.

The station is a riot of activity. People use the windows to board and leave, avoiding the crowds in the aisles. Vendors sell to the riders through the windows. The masses are indeed teaming.

Narrative to be continued... Enjoy the pics!

The sign reads:

The Thousant Feet Precipice

This is the first dangerous path in the Huashan Mountain. It is a path of about 370 stone stairs, and with the iron chains on the both sides, straight upward through a Long stone crevice, which is almost vertical something Like a shaft. If you look upward, you can only see a small part of the sky just like standing at the bottom of a deepwell. Now a double track has been hewn, too beside it.

A local school teacher has climber for artistic inspiration...

In basic lodgings atop the mountain, one can spend the night huddled under warm woolen blankets. Everyone rallies at dawn to drink a cup of hot tea, put on warm clothes, and head out to greet the sunrise from the mountain-top.

On the way down, we stop at a tea shop along the way. (Note the string of people descending the slope in the distance.)

We leave the heights, we tuck our insprations into our heart and mind, and after a brief rest, we continue on down, back to the day-to-day life that awaits us below...