Huashan (Flower Mountain)
Huashan is made from the combination of two words. Hua means Chinese, brilliant or flowery and shan means mountain. Huashan is one of the five sacred mountains of Taooist in China. Huashan has a lot of other religious sites: pavilions, Taoist Temples and engraved scriptures which are scattered over the mountain
Hou mountain is famous for its plunging ravines and sheer cliffs. It is also considered as the most precipitous mountain under the heaven and probably the most dangerous mountain of the world freqented by the hikers.
This mountain is located at about 120 kilometers east from Xi’ans and it takes about three hours from city centre to reach there. There are total five peaks which make up the mountain namely Cloud Terrace Peak or North Peak, Jade Maiden Peak or Middle Peak, Sunrise Peak or East Peak, Lotus Peak or West Peak and the Landing Wild Goose Peak or South Peak. North Peak, being lowest of all these peaks is the starting point. There are three ways to go there. The six kilometer winding track from the Huashan village, cable car or the path beneath it.
Jade Maiden peak is next on this route. There is a story that the jade maiden was seen once riding a white horse among these mountains and hence it was named. You can choose to take left for seeing the Sunrise peak which is the best place to enjoy the view of the sunrise in the morning.
Huashan (Flower Mountain)
Alternatively you can also take to the right to the Lotus peak. Huashan means the Flower mountain and its name has been derived from the Lotus Peak which has the resemblance to the beatiful blooming flower of lotus. There is a gondola which can take you to the steep valley to the Landing Wild Goose peak which is the highest among these summits. The path there is characterised by the steep rock faces having a wide plack walkway which is fixed to the sheer rock face and there si a chain along the rock for support. The route has the foot hold in the rocks and chain for holding. After that you will get a vertical ladder in the cleft of the rock. The South Peak is very dangeours in winter however the view from this Peak is spectacular. This mountain is worth to see for anybody.