Climbing the Huashan Mountain at Night: A Guide for March 2018

Itinerary Introduction

Xiamen—>Xi’an: Flight approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes

Xi’an North—>Huashan North: High-speed train approximately 30 minutes

Huashan North Station—>Huashan: Free public bus

March 27, 2018: The flight was around 10 pm, and arrived at Xianyang Airport around 1:30 am. I prepared a coat in advance because the temperature was a bit low when getting off the plane. Since it was quite late, I rented a space capsule accommodation near the airport to rest. It took more than 20 minutes to walk from the airport to the space capsule according to the navigation. By the time I finished washing and lying down to sleep, it was already half past 2 am.

March 28th: I actually didn’t sleep all night, too excited to sleep, and kept checking the information and strategies for night climbing Huashan on my mobile phone. I dozed off at 6 am when it got light, slept from 6 am to 8 am for 2 hours, then went to wash my face and brush my teeth, left the hotel at 9 am, and took the bus to Xi’an North Station.

At noon, I took the bus from Xi’an North Station to Huashan North Station, and arrived at Huashan North Station around 1:30 pm.

When you come out of Huashan North Station, go to the front right corner of the square, the southwest corner, there is a free Hua Yin No.1 bus. Just get on the bus you see, and the destination is the Huashan Scenic Area Visitor Center. You will see the sign of the “Lotus Lantern” on the way.

After the “Lotus Lantern,” it’s the visitor service center.

I went in and bought the ticket at the visitor center. It is recommended to buy tickets here. Although tickets can be bought at the scenic area ticket check entrance, when I went in 2018, it was only possible to buy with cash and mobile payments were not supported. Many people who climbed at midnight were still looking for passers-by to exchange cash using Alipay and WeChat. The visitor center supports mobile payments, and it’s more convenient to buy in advance.

Now, you can buy tickets directly on the app, which is much more convenient.

There is also a free shuttle bus at the visitor center’s parking lot. I took the ticket and got on the bus directly. The shuttle bus goes straight to the parking lot at the foot of Huashan, at the entrance of Yuquan Temple. After getting off the bus, I came out of the parking lot and it was the square in front of Yuquan Temple, a large open space. Since I was going to start climbing at around 10 pm, it was still early, so I could only rest and wait at Yuquan Temple first.

Yuquan Temple is free, and everyone can visit at will. If you are tired, you can rest under the pavilion in the courtyard.

The square at the entrance is also quite large. In the afternoon, many people who came to climb the mountain came one after another for a rest. They should all be preparing to climb the mountain at night.

We started to climb at night around 10:30 pm. I was originally alone, but I met several friends from all over the place in the afternoon, so we formed a team to climb the mountain together.

The route for night climbing is: There is a mountain climbing road on the left side of Yuquan Temple (on our right facing Yuquan Temple). Just go straight up from the right side. There is a toilet at the entrance for everyone’s convenience.

After walking a section of the road from the archway, you will see the scenic spot entrance, the ticket check.

The road at the beginning is relatively flat and easier to walk. It takes about 40 minutes to reach the first pass for a commemorative photo. It is not convenient to expose other people’s portraits, so the picture is manually mosaicked.

The road up the mountain is full of challenges. There are actually many people climbing the mountain today. The more difficult the road section, the more people rest on both sides of the road.

Now that we have just started walking not far, we occasionally look up at the distant bright spots, which are out of reach for us now, but are our destination.

After walking on the flat road, it slowly becomes a stone step staircase road, the difficulty increases, and there are more people resting along the way (it is not convenient to take photos in crowded places, in fact, it is not convenient to take everyone’s awkward appearance, there are people with painful faces, there are people who regret, there are people who want to give up, in short, all kinds of strange shapes).

The stone step road seems to have taken a long time in my memory. The stone steps were relatively short and flat at the beginning, but as I walked, they gradually became steeper.

This section is a turning road going up. It doesn’t look like a bridge, but it’s like a road built in the middle of the mountain. When I got here, I was already a bit tired. A young friend played Jay Chou’s songs to cheer everyone up, and then we had a big chorus for the next ten minutes (it was 2018, and music listening had not started charging, but now various music software has started to charge VIP).

Looking up, the lights stretch and twist, and the destination is still far away. Come on, continue.

This is in front of a small temple. I forgot the name of this temple.

Go to the left, follow the road to turn, and the next stop is Qian Chi Shuang: the famous dangerous pass of Huashan.

This stone is called Hui Xin Shi, which means that if you are afraid, you can turn back here because the road behind is very dangerous.

Qian Chi Shuang: The slope is quite steep. It is recommended to bring gloves when climbing Huashan, which is convenient for grabbing the iron chains on both sides and climbing up. Safety first.

Bai Chi Gorge: Part of Qian Chi Shuang, it is also famous for its steepness. The width of many stone steps is less than half the palm of a foot. Be sure to pay attention to safety, hold the iron chain, and walk steadily.

After going up Bai Chi Gorge, we walked several sections of stairs in succession and saw a relatively flat platform. We stopped to rest, eat something, drink some water, and replenish our strength. The current time is around 1:20 am.

After resting, we started to head for the North Peak. The weather was a bit cool in the early morning, and our physical strength was consumed quickly. Before reaching the top of the North Peak, we sat on the cold stairs to rest for a while.

When we reached the top of the North Peak, it was too dark, and many people were sitting in place to rest, so we didn’t take many photos. We went directly from Canglong Ridge to the East Peak to find a good position to watch the sunrise at dawn. The picture is of Canglong Ridge, with cliffs on both sides and a passage in the middle. Canglong Ridge is also very dangerous at night.

After more than an hour, we arrived at Jin Suo Pass, feeling cold, sleepy, and numb in the legs. I usually don’t exercise so much, and my legs were very tired. There is porridge for sale at Jin Suo Pass, and friends in need can stay and eat something. Since I really had no appetite, I sat on the ground and rested for a while, and then continued to head to the East Peak.

Waiting for the sunrise is also a very painful process. When we arrived at the East Peak, there were already many people, and the wind was very strong. We put on cotton jackets and sat in a corner waiting for the sunrise. At this time, there was still one and a half to two hours before sunrise. We were very sleepy but couldn’t sleep. The top of the mountain was too cold. Some friends rented a military coat and directly wrapped themselves in the coat and lay on the stone to sleep. I really admire them!

At 6 am, the sky began to brighten slightly, and everyone started to stand up to grab positions for taking photos. The entire peak was full of people, densely packed.

At 6:35 am, I continuously took photos of the process of the sun rising, and I was quite satisfied. After taking the photos, I quickly pulled the other teammates to leave together because it would be very crowded if we waited for everyone to disperse. It’s best to evacuate in advance.

Coming down from the East Peak, we went directly to the South Peak because the Changkong Plank Road is on the South Peak, and we were looking forward to it very much. But I didn’t expect that my legs would become soft when I arrived at the Changkong Plank Road later… Alas.

After coming down from the East Peak and walking a section of the downhill road, and then walking a section of the uphill road, we arrived at the South Heavenly Gate. There is a place to rest at the entrance of the South Heavenly Gate. We rested for a while before going up.

Changkong Plank Road, there are still many people going.

Below is the Changkong Plank Road. At this time, my legs were already soft, and I couldn’t tell whether it was too tired from climbing the mountain or acrophobia. My legs were shaking severely.

This is the entrance of the Changkong Plank Road, which says “stop at the edge of the cliff.” If you think you have no problem, go challenge it. If you feel inconvenient, save it for the next challenge.

Watching others walk the Changkong Plank Road, after the Changkong Plank Road, we were ready to go down the mountain. We didn’t go to see the Huashan Sword Fighting Stone Stele, mainly because we were too tired from climbing the mountain all night. Considering that we still had to walk down and it would take a lot of physical strength, we chose to save some energy.

During the day at Jin Suo Pass, a few friends originally planned to take the cable car down the mountain. After being moved by us, they also planned to hike down the mountain with us.

The scenery during the day is still unbeatable. Next time, we will go during the day when we have time and are not in a hurry, so we can slowly appreciate the scenery.

We didn’t take the Qian Chi Shuang and Bai Chi Gorge on the way down the mountain. We took another staircase road and walked all the way to the bottom of Qian Chi Shuang, and then took the stone step road we took earlier to go down the mountain. It took about more than 2 hours to reach the ticket check.