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Day 6 - Hua Shan (Holy Mountain)
A visit to one of the five sacred Taoist mountains, Hua Shan, 120km west of Xian was supposed to be a welcome break from the noisy crowds but we made our first school boy error by booking onto a Chinese language guided tour bus as this was a bit more off the beaten track for westerners.Usually a fan of the back of the bus, on this occasion our bus was a baking hot oven with upright seats and non-stop mandarin commentary.After an unscheduled stop for an hour at a Chinese medicine outlet and after walking out of a restaurant when Lil's meal did not turn up (after a Mexican stand off in the middle of the car park with the locals I finally agreed to pay for my meal but I think that shouting "NO GOOD SERVICE… NO GOOD SERVICE" I made an important point) we finally made it to the mountain five hours after we set off!!
The path to Enlightenment is a long and hard one, although a cable car half the way up and then steps with piped music to the top makes it a lot easier.That being said, climbing steep and small steps for three hours is certainly a good workout although the pace was set by the oldest monk.We felt a little out of place in our North Face gear as it is acceptable in China to climb mountains in jeans and high heels (interestingly in China men carry the ladies' handbags - this is a mistake by the Chinese male as the woman's ability to carry her own bag is a natural limiter on the size of her handbag).So although not exactly walking in north Wales, the mountains were truly spectacular and typically Chinese in appearance and peppered with small monasteries - the kind of place Monkey and Pigsy would have roamed.
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