In China there are many mountains but for the Chinese people some are more famous; I am referring to the five great mountains, four sacred mountains of Buddhism, and four sacred mountains of Taoism. I tried to climb many mountains while in China; the climbing most often was easy, getting to the mountain perhaps not so simple.
I was in Guilin, Hunan, which was a great touristy place to visit; the locals were friendly and there were plenty of foreigners around visiting the sites. Looking at my map I planned to go north and climb Heng Shan mountain, it is one of the five great mountains; so I bought a train ticket to the city of Hengshan. The only train ticket available was at 12:43 am, and the train was a "slow train" so that meant the trip would take 10 hours for the approx. 320 km ride. The train system throughout China was a little complicated, they have the D train, the F train, fast trains; the fast trains only go a certain route; the slow trains yield to all other train traffic so one is always stopped (with locals who most often take the slow train). So I sat on a hard bench seat with the crowds of local villagers and I was lucky enough to meet a young person who spoke English.....we talked through the night. The long slow train rides can be brutal BUT you get to endure the journey with regular folks ( I call them sweat trains).
When I got off of the train I noticed that only five other people got off, the temperature was already 38 degrees. I rounded the corner to go down the steps and saw that Hengshan was a disgusting small city with dirty streets.
The locals looked at me like I was from outer space; I wondered how this place could be the gateway to one of the five great mountains. I walked down the main street and everyone was looking at me. There were many garbage piles burning in the streets, junk laying around, chickens and dogs were picking in the dirt looking for food. I could hear hey,hey,hey!; there was a shop with these old prostitutes at the door and they were gesturing for me to come over, I ignored them. One of these mid-40's ladies came out on the street and began pulling my arms towards the shop; I just kept walking saying, no,no until she gave up.
With small cities like Hengshan it is very difficult to communicate; sometimes a person will know someone who has a bit of English so they will call that person. I walked to the end of that main street gesturing to people 'sleep' so they could point me to a hotel but they could just not understand. I traveled so much in China so I was used to being in places where communication was difficult, it was frustrating at times. I ended up to text the young student from the train and she called me; I then give the phone to a guy on the street and she explained hotel in Chinese. This man gestured across the highway so I ventured over to a dilapidated old building. When I entered I surprised a lady at the front desk and she started saying many things in Mandarin, I said Ting Bu Dong (I do not understand) and she smiled. For so long I tried to communicate with her that I wanted a room; she talked Chinese and I talked in English. Finally I called that young lady from the train and she talked to the lady.....I got a room.
The room was gross, although I have slept in a lot worse. When I turned on the tap in the washroom the water was brown; there were two ants nests in the wall, I could see hundreds of them coming and going. I had to eat and somehow I had to get some rest....more importantly I had to find out how to get to the base of the mountain that I would climb the next day. The hotel did not have a restaurant so I headed back over to the main street of town and chose what I thought would be the only option that I had for eating. There was a photo on the wall of chicken soup with rice so I ordered that ; people were stopping at the restaurant door to stare. When the soup came it was disgusting, there was just a broth with many chicken bones (very little meat) and the chicken head; I ate the rice and then left to search for the route to climb the mountain. I pointed to a map and asked people, Heng Shan, Heng Shan.... man it took so long before a man gestured to an old bus.
I ended up getting on that bus, the lady asked for 5 RMB, I knew by that sum that the start of the mountain climb was quit far. Twenty kms we drove to a place called Hangshan....which was the starting point for Heng Shan. For the mountains popular with the Chinese there are many shops at the base that sell souvenirs and incense for worshiping Buddha. Many people were saying hello, hello, hotel.
Now I knew where the mountain was, it was time to get back on the bus that had just brought me there 5 minutes earlier. The conductor of the bus (usually the drivers wife) closed the door on the bus, I knocked on the door for her to let me in and the lady was saying no, no. I tried to go in the front door of the bus and it appeared to me that the lady could not understand why I would want to take a bus back to where I just came from. It was frustrating but also a bit humorous, thank goodness the lady finally let me in. She and her husband were talking and looking at me like I was crazy, I was trying to use gestures to tell them that I just wanted to see where the mountain entrance was but they just could not grasp that concept.
I made it back to the hotel and passed out ( I had been awake for 35 hours) until the all too common fireworks woke me up at 5am. Fireworks in China can go off at any hour of any day, this noise pollution is a big problem in the country.
After my instant noodles in the morning I took the sweat bus to Hangshan and walked to the end of the street of shops. I saw two guys and they spoke English well. I asked them if I go straight to get to the mountain or turn right ?, they said straight but it is very difficult; right is where most Chinese go to take a bus most of the way up; straight it was. I walked about an hour up the road and there was one temple, that was a good sign because these "great mountains" have many temples, with a large one at the top. I came up to a fork in the road with a sign that only had Chinese characters; a motorcycle approached and the driver asked me if I wanted a ride for 2 RMB, I had feared that I had went the wrong way so I showed him the map on the brochure and told him I wanted to go to a temple near the bottom of the mountain.
I hopped on his bike and he took me off the beaten track to a place with a restaurant, he wanted 200 RMB from me. I argued with him and in the end he took me back down to the temple for 20 RMB. I walked the other route and came upon a pagoda which I climbed in order to get a view.
I could see from the top that there were some temples that dotted the side of the mountain. Once I got down there was a lady that gestured to me, pointing to a path; soon after I saw a sign with the peaks name; it was to be 11 kms to get there.
Temple after temple I passed; there was one neat old residence of someone famous, but like all sacred mountains they are too repetitious (unless you are a Buddhist).
Once on top, the large temple there was very dirty and so crowded; I did not see a foreigner, most Chinese took the bus.
The peak is about 2,000 metres high and there were some nice views from the top; but that changed as a big storm moved in while I was up there.
The thunder came right after the lightening so the eye of the storm was directly overhead, I could feel the electricity when the flash of lightening appeared. I looked for cover and found an English speaker in the crowd named Sunny, she was a delight to meet, she took the pressure off. I do not enjoy being around hundreds of people when most of them smoke, they throw the incense (with the plastic wrap) and fireworks in the burn pits so it generally makes for a loud and smelly occasion.
After all of the exertion of climbing up and down the mountain on a very hot day I took the sweat bus back to the luxurious hotel room (not) in Heng Shan, which is where you do not want to go to climb Heng Shan mountain.
