Huashan

The second day of our excursion out of Xi'an was to Huashan, one of the five sacred mountains of China. Named because of the arrangement of five peaks to resemble a flower, it has an ancient history of both religious and artistic inspiration.

Rather than climb more than 1500 m in high humidity and heat, we opted for a gondola ride to the North Peak, and from there a more manageable (and safer) climb to the other four peaks, meeting Bess and our friend at the South Peak and taking the same gondola down they took up.

Different places among the peaks are given poetic names, such as Golden Lock Pass, or reference mythology, like the daughter of a duke who married a hermit so they could play the flute together every night and attract phoenix.

"Watching Huashan from Beidou Terrace".

The paths on the mountain are all either cut directly into the granite itself, or added on with cement. Many thousands of steps covering the mountain.

And the occasional little cave.

Spectacular lookouts abound - it was truly exhilarating wandering from peak to peak.

Then there was the plank walk we didn't attempt. Good for those who want to overcome a fear of heights by means of extreme self torture.

Finally we arrived at the South Peak to meet Bess and our friend - we knew we were on the right track we asked if the trail led to the South Peak and the fellow answered that we must be the foreigners that two ladies had asked about.

The only problem with the South Peak is that it's the most accessible peak from the easier gondola. So it's overrun with tourists, including women in dresses and three inch heels. Perfect attire for a stroll around the top of a mountain. I thought it looked more like "tourist peak".

Even so, the scenery was so wonderful that the unruly crowds were easily ignored.

Then it was time for the gondola ride down - quite a feat of engineering.