Hiking at Mount Huashan

China’s Shaanxi Province houses the western most mountain of the five great mountains of China, with offerings for both nature lovers and adventurers.

Xi’an has something for each type of traveller and it doesn’t disappoint adventure lovers as well. To experience some adrenalin rushes, we head to Mount Hua – 120 kilometres east of Xi’an located near Huayin city in Shaanxi.

This western most mountain of the five great mountains of China has a long history of religious significance. The most common and ideal way to enjoy the towering peaks is via the mountain cable car that takes visitors up to 2,113 metres.
As tourism boomed and the mountain’s accessibility vastly improved with the installation of the cable car in the 1990s, the local government has now opened new tracks and created one-way routes on some of the more dangerous parts.

The route up the mountain has been named as one of the most dangerous hikes in the world and if seen from the bird’s eye view, the five peaks together form the shape of a lotus.

The mountain area is not far from the southeast corner of the Yellow River basin in China. The river, also known as Mother River was clean 100 years ago, however because of extensive pollution levels, the water is now chrome yellow. Though this is not why the river widely known as the Yellow River. The river was named after the Yellow Emperor (one of China’s mythological emperors, cultural hero and patron saint) and ironically the river water actually turned yellow with time, thanks to the abundant power plants factories in Xi’an.