I have a prospective client on the west coast, but their manufacturing facility and one of the partners is in China, so off I went to China for a visit. The first stop was Hong Kong, where I had a few hours before continuing on to Shenzhen on the mainland. I kind of trashed my camera lens when I took the photo of Mt. Shasta you see at the top of the blog (it turns out 200 mph bugs CAN chip a lens), so I decided to devote my time in Hong Kong to buying a new Canon G12 camera to replace my G10. After that mission was accomplished I spent a day in Shenzen touring the factory and meetings.
That was Thursday and Friday, and I had another meeting in Shanghai on Monday, so I had a couple of days in mainland China to myself. I remembered seeing some wild photos of a place in China somewhere, somewhere on granite in the mountains. Could I possibly find that place and visit it? In a weekend? And still make it back for my meeting Monday morning in Ningbo outside Shanghai?
It was a challenge but I did it, and Huasan is indeed a wild and interesting place. Of course, the cool thing is the “boardwalk” with the wild 1,000 foot drop-off below your feet. It isn’t part of a major trail, but only a spur trail that goes out to a temple of some sort carved in the rock. They now have harnesses you wear, a good thing to have especially around other people! No one wants to get bumped off the platform. The boardwalk itself looks like it has been there hundreds of years, so even though it looks scary I figure it was unlikely to fall off at the moment I was on it.
I had read that they have hostels on the mountain so I just brought a day back with a change of socks and underwear, and sure enough that worked out and I got a place to stay. The day pack was a hydration pack so common here, but apparently not so common in China. One person that spoke some English, said, “Ah – Oxygen!”, so probably everyone thought I was sucking oxygen while on the mountain. I spent Saturday night on the mountain, then got up early to hike up to East Peak to see the sunrise, apparently something you do when on the mountain. The sunrise was very anti-climatic because of clouds and smog – it just got lighter and grayer with no real sunrise.
Then it was a rush to make it to Ningbo. Trail running, trams, rickshaws, taxis, planes and buses and I only knew yes, no and thank you in Chinese. I did ten different travel segments in total and although I missed a train in Shanghai I was still able to get a bus to Ningbo. Whew. My business companion, waiting for me in Ningbo, was pretty certain I wasn’t going to show up so I was happy to have made it.
West Coast Flying Adventures 
Det hadde jeg aldri klart jeg sitter her og ser på bildene og brekker meg og blir helt svimmel.
Jeg sliter veldig med høydeskrekk det er ikke mange meterne jeg skal opp før jeg føler at jeg faller med. Det renner av hendene mine stikker i hodet det er grusomt.
Så tøffe dere er må jo være litt av en opplevelse:)
Just got back from Mt. Huasan last moth. Absolute awesome place. Don’t expect to see many westerners or tourist as it is about 2-2.5 hour drive from Xian. Unfortunately, the trail guide/maps are not very clear. We were searching for the plank walk and ended up on the east peak (Sunrise peak). Having 4 women with me (amateur outdoors-men), they just didn’t have the energy to go back down to Central Peak, and then back up South Peak. I hate that I missed it, but I will be back again for sure.
For those that make the trip, I would suggest allowing at least a couple days to see the whole mountain. You can get a “simple bed” on top, so it is worth seeing the sunset on West Peak and Sunrise on East Peak. Although the hike from base is a true pilgrimage, the cable car makes it pretty easy to get up. Just be ready for some great hiking and great views.
I recommend to all that go to China to make the effort to go.
Oh my gosh, I was hoping senoome was out there. I have never seen clouds like this morning and when the sun started lighting them up it was spectacular- and I was stuck at work. Beautiful shots, thank you.