Mt. Huashan

The morning of our hike we had just enough time to eat breakfast before getting picked up.  Unfortunately, the people at the front desk told us we didn't have an included breakfast, so I had to run back to our room and find the reservation saying that it was included.  By that time our ride was there!  But luckily we had a few minutes to scarf down some toast, because that was all that was edible... not a fan of the Chinese breakfast!

It was about a 2 hour drive to the foot of the mountain, and I was worrying the whole time that I was going to die on this mountain!  Apparently lots of people have and its been named the most dangerous mountain in the world or something like that.... and we wanted to do it why?!?!  I was sure I'd fall off the edge, or someone would take me down with them!  When Mary and I did Angels landing in Utah (where there have been several deaths - I didn't want to do that one either!!!)  there was a Chinese man at the top and right close by the edge he tripped and fell over a log.... he didn't fall off but he was close!  And that's what I kept picturing in my head - someone tripping near the edge and grabbing me and taking me down - AHHHH!  Anyways, I like to live on the edge of fear (not really) so on we went.  It was not at all what I expected!!  I guess I should have expected the place to be packed, because all of China is! I thought it was going to be a quiet mountain village with nature all around...Ha.

  Our guide bought us tickets and arranged everything, and even came with us up the mountain which we were not expecting.  We had to take a bus another 30 mins or so to the west gondola stop, then heaps of stairs up to the actual gondola, then a ridiculously steep gondola ride up to the mountain - seriously it was so steep!  Maybe the steepest in the world? I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised!  Once at the top he told us what our route should be and went down to wait at the north gondola station for us.  Mt. Huashan is shaped like a lotus flower with 5 different peaks you can climb to, with paths connecting each peak.  There were so many people there, even kids and ladies with ridiculous shoes! It was really cool though, we were so high and got tons of beautiful views!  And it was so worth it!  I did see a few people trip (luckily not close to the edge!) but I survived!  Yay!

Up to the gondola we go!

I don't know if you can really tell, but the gondola cables are practically vertical!

Bathroom with the best view?

This was the line to get to the skywalk, which is probably the most dangerous thing of the mountain, just a few planks nailed into the side of the mountain, but you are harnessed in!  Good thing the line was long and we didn't have a ton of time otherwise we may have been tempted!

Welcome to Mt. Huashan!

There were red ribbons and golden locks tied everywhere!

The gondola when straight up into a hole in the side of the mountain

People people everywhere! 

You can see the west peak behind me

So many pictures! I apologize!

There were some dodgy parts!  Didn't want a little old lady falling on you!

Behind my left hand is the west peak where we started!

This is the north peak cable car down, and its not even as steep at the west one!

It was a really cool experience!  Dotted around the different peaks were different temples and memorials.  And it really didn't feel that dangerous - I guess you can't believe everything you read on the internet!

We got dropped off at the dumpling place when we got back to Xi'an, then we went for more shopping at the night markets!  Amy never gets enough of shopping!!  Also Amy had been debating back and forth on whether to get a fish pedicure (where the fish eat off all the dead skin!) And finally she went for it!  And I got sucked into it as well, it felt so weird!  I got a really funny video when Amy first stuck her feet in the tank...

Goodbye IBIS!  You were horrible!

On our rushed and stressful trip to the airport our driver had to stop and get gas.... in this weird way!

This was a cool little stall!  You go to the shelf and pick off what you want and they make you a noodle bowl (we didn't do it - I didn't want food poisoning!!!)

Amy went back on forth on buying a "North Face" backpack, finally her "best friend" convinced her to do it!
("You're my best friend!  I love you!")

Mango shop!

The top was yum! The rest... meh!

Saying goodbye at the airport! I had a few more hours to wait after Amy left - it was pretty boring!

Funny little sleep boxes at the airport 

Flying into Hong Kong was so beautiful!!!  You could see all the mountains and buildings poking out of the clouds!

And then I was home!  When I got into the car at the airport I handed Charlie and Elly these little panda bears that I bought at the airport (to try and use up the rest of my Chinese money) and Charlie said "I thought you were going to bring be something I liked!"  How rude, I was not impressed.

Xi'an

The night train to Xi'an was fantastic!  Probably owing to the fact we hiked a lot in the previous two days and were super tired from a horrible nights sleep on the wall, we slept like rocks!  And due to our limited amount of time, we decided that our best bet would be to hire a private guide for the two days we were in Xi'an, so that we wouldn't have to waste any time going to silly shops where they try and sell you things or waiting for other people, and this way we could customize it as well.

Well well well.... we get picked up straight from the train station (which was really nice as it was crazy hectic there!!!  Not all orderly like Beijing!) and taken straight to a silly little shop before heading on to the Terracotta Warriors..... We were NOT impressed!  

On to the warriors we went, with our guide taking care of everything and leading the way, which was actually really nice.  His name was Noble and he didn't speak very much English or know the answers to any of our questions, but he was trying....  Did you know that 90% of the tourists in China are Chinese?  From other parts of the country.  Needless to say it was absolutely packed and loud and hectic trying to get a view of the Terracotta Warriors.  From what we could see they were really cool!  All handcrafted with different faces and armour, apparently they even had real weapons at one point, but those were all looted and used by other armies.  The warriors were built to protect an emperors tomb, which is actually like 1 or 2km away from the pits (only 3 pits have been excavated and only on one side of the tomb - maybe there are heaps more buried under the ground? Wish our guide knew or understood the question...lol  But I shouldn't judge, I don't speak any other languages!  But then again I'm not a tour guide either... I'm getting off topic!)

We didn't spend long at the Terracotta Warriors, there isn't much to see there, and we headed for an early lunch at a super fancy 5* hotel.  We were the only ones in the whole restaurant and it was really kinda eerie!  But it was decent food (although it was better in a little farmhouse on a mountain....)

Next we moved on to the Wild Goose Pagoda where we were ditched by our guide to some other guide who worked there and he took us all around and then took us in a little shop and wrote things in Chinese characters for us to take home, followed by a trip through a little shop where we were expected to buy something but we didn't... Super not impressed again!  Those situations are always so awkward!  

Then it was on to the Muslim Quarter, where there were a whole bunch of stalls and shops and things - something we were most definitely interested in!  A Market!  But we had to go into this Mosque first, and then leave because the tour was over!  So not much time for shopping, just glancing around as we hurried after Noble.  They dropped us off at our hotel (Ibis Xi'an) and luckily helped us with checking in because the hotel had no record of our booking.  The front desk people didn't speak English and were actually quite rude, especially when we said we'd pre-paid online!  But it all worked out.  The hotel was meant to be non smoking, but everywhere smelt like smoke and our room was crap!  All part of the experience right??  

That night we ventured off on our own and made our way to the Xi'an city wall.  It's the only intact city wall left in China and its amazing!  Obviously the city has grown out heaps from the wall, but it's so wide and impressive and once up, you get a really good view of the city!  We rented bikes and biked the 14km around on top of the wall, we started off in the daylight and ended when it was dark, so we got the best of both views!  After that we headed back towards the muslim quarter, and found a delicious dumpling shop along the way - SO DELICIOUS!!!  The bell tower and drum tower are right there as well and a really neat sight.  The main intersection here is crazy, and so there are actually tunnels going underneath the streets to connect everywhere, with bathrooms and vending machines in the tunnels too!  So smart.  

We made it back to the Muslim Quarter and SURPRISE!  There was an even bigger night market set up than before with we were thrilled with.  It was open so late, it's almost like people never sleep there in China...  It was really fun to walk around and we even managed to make some purchases which kept shopaholic Amy happy!  We eventually got worn out and magically caught a taxi back to our hotel, we needed some rest for death mountain the next day!

It was actually kinda scary when it got darker to ride around the wall because there weren't many lights and the ground was super bumpy and it was hard to tell if people were walking in your way!  But we survived!

Night train!

This was at the first shop stop and I am not impressed!!!

It actually took us ages to find the entrance up on to the wall!!

China really has a lot of stairs...

Yay for markets!!!

We took a picture of ourselves in the mirror! Cheese! 

Night time in Xi'an is so fun!!!

Also at the first stop shop.  We were there to learn how the terracotta warriors were made.  But did we?  No.
They knew we weren't going to spend money so why waste their time?

Waiting for the train to leave to Xi'an

Again at the first stop shop - you can buy these guys to put in your house! 

Pit 1 - the biggest and most impressive of them all!

We were lucky to only have three other people in our photo!

At the empty restaurant!

At the Muslim Quarter - I really liked how all of their roofs were this really nice teal colour 

At the yummy dumpling shop!

At the Wild Goose Pagoda

So that night after getting back to our hotel we wrote the tour company an email saying we were unhappy with the service and wanted to pay the group tour price because we didn't want to be going to shops where they pressure you to buy things... anyways, they took like $100 off our price which was super nice!  I really didn't think they would.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we hadn't paid at all and they were worried we'd ditch?  (We tried to get money out at a bank, but they capped our limit, well Amy's limit and I couldn't get out any at all!!!  We were a bit worried we wouldn't be able to pay them at all!!!)