旅游英語景點介紹—華山 Hua shan

　　【簡介】華山(亦稱太華山、華通花、褒禪山)，又稱西岳，為五岳之一，位于中國陜西省渭南市華陰市城南，西距西安市120公里，秦、晉、豫黃河三角洲交匯處，南接秦嶺，北瞰黃河，扼西北進出中原之門戶。華山山體倚天拔地，四面如削，更有千尺幢、百尺峽、蒼龍嶺、鷂子翻身、長空棧道等十分險峻之地，被譽為“奇險天下第一山”。華山共有五峰，即東峰朝陽，西峰蓮花，中峰玉女，南峰落雁，北峰云臺。南峰落雁，為太華極頂，海拔2154.9米;西峰最險，海拔2082米;北峰最低，海拔1614.7米。另外，南峰落雁、東峰朝陽，西峰蓮花，合稱“天外三峰”。華山同時也是道教名山，是三十六洞天中的第四洞天。北魏地理學(xué)家酈道元在《水經(jīng)注》中，對華山有“其高五千仞，削成而四方，遠而望之，又若花狀”的描繪。古代“花”與“華”相通，可見華山之名實際上得自于形狀。關(guān)于華山得名，還有另一種說法：因華山頂上生長著白蓮花，故而得名。韓愈的《古意》詩中所寫的“太華峰頂玉井蓮，花開十丈藕如船”，就是根據(jù)此傳說。

Hua shan is the highest of china’s five sacred mountains. it is 120 kilometers east of xian. it has five peaks that resemble the petals of a flower. the highest peak is 2180 meters (7085 feet).

we had had discussions about going to hua shan with some graduate students from computer science. that didn’t work out due to changes in schedules on both sides. also, they were planning to do the climb at night to be able to reach the peak at sunrise. that did not appeal to us. we wanted to spend a night on the mountain. fran’s department arranged a trip for us, making reservations at the simple hotel on the north peak. they sent two graduate students to accompany us, though they had not been to hua shan before. we met them at 8:00 on saturday morning and took a taxi to the train station. there we asked around and located a mini-bus. the bus made a couple of stops. one was to see a presentation about the traditional medicines grown on the mountain and a chance to buy some of them. it probably would have been interesting if we understood chinese. our guides gave us the general outline about what was said. the other stop was a quick lunch stop.

there are two approaches to hua shan. [chinese proverb: “there is one road and only one road to hua shan,” meaning that sometimes the hard way is the only way.] the west entrance involves 10 kilometers of walking on a road before you start climbing. we went with the east entrance, where the bus brings you to the base of a cable car that goes up to the 1500 meter north peak. our plan was to walk up to the north peak, then climb to the four other peaks the next day and take the cable car down.we started the climb in the early afternoon. the path consists of stone steps with rough chain link handrails in the narrowest areas (we wore our bicycling gloves for hand protection). physically, it is more like climbing the steps of a skyscraper than trails at home. however, the temperature was about 95 degrees and there was not much shade. we brought lots of water, including some bottles that we froze and some gatorade that we got at the fancy department store in downtown xian. there are plenty of refreshment stands along the way where you can buy bottled water, the chinese equivalent of gatorade, and other drinks or snacks at a premium price.

we reached the north peak before 4:00 pm and rested at the hotel. our room was basic, but comfortable and clean enough. because water is scarce on the mountain, there were neither showers nor sinks available for washing. in that sense the experience felt like camping, but we were sleeping in a big tent!

after dinner at the hotel restaurant, we spent some time talking with our guides. we were a bit surprised to find that they both think of japan negatively, but like the u.s. it seems that japan’s wwii behavior in china has not been forgotten, and is emphasized in school.

we saw a beautiful sunset and watched the sky become resplendent with thousands of stars, including the milky way galaxy. this was the clearest sky that we have seen in china. the fresh air at hua shan is a treat!

our guides had both been planning to get up at 4:00 am to watch the sunrise. fran and i made sleep a priority. we did happen to wake up a bit before sunrise (our room faced east) and went outside to watch the sky become rosy. ironically, our guides missed the sunrise because they had stayed up late watching the european soccer championships on the television in their room.

the plan for the day was to climb the other four peaks, but we reserved the right to shorten the route. the first part was a steep climb to middle peak. after the low north peak, all the others are at roughly 2000 meters. there were crowds on the way to middle peak – mostly chinese hikers but we did see a few other wai guo (foreigners) as well.

we visited two taoist temples en route to middle peak. each one had an altar with incense and offerings of fruit. the friendly monks invited us to say a prayer or to send blessings to loved ones. fran accepted their invitation. at the first temple, she lit incense sticks and knelt on a cushion in front of the altar saying a silent prayer for our safe journey to the various summits of hua shan (the prayer was answered). at the second temple, she knelt on a cushion in front of the altar and sent silent blessings to several friends who are experiencing challenging situations in their lives at present. after each blessing, she leaned forward and the monk struck a drum.

after middle peak, the crowds got much thinner. the next was east peak, which had a steep ladder climbing rock. fran was dubious about this ascent, but realized that the ladder wasn’t so bad and went for it. that was a good decision because we were then able to do a loop and the trails got almost empty at this point. after skirting the top of a cliff with a steep dropoff on both sides, we had a pleasant walk to south peak and west peak. there was even a small amount of dirt trail! the summit of south peak was the highest point on hua shan, so of course we asked another hiker to take a photo of our guides and us. the views from the tops of each peak were beautiful. hua shan and the surrounding mountains are very rugged and remind us somewhat of hiking in the southwestern united states or the sierras.we took a route that eventually brought us to the main line returning down from middle to north peak. we were happy to have ascended each of the five peaks (petals) of flower mountain.

by cable car (the longest in asia), it was just 7 minutes down to the park entrance. we caught a shuttle bus into town, then transferred to a bus for xian.

our guides told us that we had walked up and down a total of 4000 stairs! we were glad that we did not have this information when we started. for three days after returning home, our sore leg muscles instructed us to take the elevator to our fifth floor apartment rather than climbing the stairs.