How to see the sunrise at Huashan Mountain? Would you like to be first on the Plank Walk, world’s most adventurous hike? There are two options, you can overnight on one of the Peaks or choose night hiking on Huashan mountain. Don’t forget to check our video from Plank Walk at the end of the post 🙂
Night hiking to one of the sacred Taoist mountains to catch the sunrise sounded like an unforgettable adventure and a good idea to us. But in November and without proper warm clothes? Well it was an adrenaline experience that was worthy despite all the troubles.
How to get from Xi’an to Huashan Mountain by train
You can travel from Xi’an to the city Huashan by speed train which goes at maximum speed 305 km/h. The way last about an half a hour. The train is leaving Xi’an from the Xi’an North train station and we bought ticket one hour before departure.
We arrived in Huashan at 7 pm so we missed the shuttle bus (yellow bus number 1), which runs to the park free of charge. We had to take a taxi for the price of 20 yuan, which we could not bargain for lower (taxi drivers have one big monopoly there).
Guide to Night hiking on Huashan mountain
The recommended start of the night hike is at 11 pm, but we decided to go straight after our arrival (8 pm). We read on the internet about the difficulty of the hike, so we did not want to underestimate anything and catch the sunrise. We had warm clothes (October), comfortable shoes, cookies, cans of red bull, fruit for energy and buns for breakfast. The park is open 24 hours and there is path lightning so you don’t need to have head lamp.
The first part of the route is a steep uphill climb, where everyone still looked like heroes, a couple of young men even ran, and some Chinese even made a phone-call, probably to share their experiences with others along the way: D
The second part of the route consists of an infinite number of stairs that are of varying size and shape. In this section, we really struggled and warmed up. We had to take regular breaks to drink and breathe. In addition, around midnight the first crisis came to us and it was time for the first dose of energy in the form of cookies: D
We arrived at the North Peak around 1 am where it was alive, all the businesses were still open and music was playing. But it is not the case of East Peak so if you know that you came too early, try to stay in warm at the North Peak
We continued to the East Peak and meet another enthusiast who we agree to go too fast and arrive too soon. However we didn’t want to go back to the northern peak so we continued. We really enjoyed the views of the illuminated peaks and the city. We look forward to finally see how the mountains actually look like in the morning.
We reached the East Peak around 1:30 am. But to our surprise, there is no open restaurant where we can warm up and spend time until sunrise. At the nearest hotel they wanted from us to pay 180 yuan for the night, which is very expensive, so we decided to spend the night outside. After a few minutes we regret that we did not bring sleeping bags with us, but what we can do 🙂 We tried to fall asleep on a bench, in a tower, on a stone, but it was cold everywhere, so we decided to warm up by walking and our despair led us to toilets under the hand dryer. The situation was really bad.
The sunrise came around 7 am and we watched it along with a crowd of Chinese tourists. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and even though the sun’s rays tried to pass through the clouds, it certainly was not one of the best sunrises.
The Huashan Plan Walk – World’s most adventurous hike
One of our goals was also Huashan Plank Walk which is located on the South Peak. Admission is 30 yuan and it lasts about one hour. We were quite disappointed because the ferrata was terribly organized, you had to walk in clear order and is not as long as it appeared on the Internet. In addition, Chinese tourists are scared and very slow. Certainly it was an great experience because of the view of the surrounding mountains, but we would not go again.
Huashan Mountain West peak
Our last stop was West Peak, which was very overcrowded because you can get there by cable car from valley (next cable car is going to North Peak). But West Peak offers one of the best views at the same time.
In conclusion, we can say that hiking on Hushan mountain is definitely worthy experience, but it must not be underestimated!
