Huashan Transportation

We know there is a tourist bus that takes you from Xi'an Train Station to Hua Shan (or thereabouts), but since we didn't have time to find the bus, we decided to join one of those Chinese bus tours in the brochures we picked up from the airport. The tour costs 270 RMB and includes hotel pick up, return bus transportation, admission fees, and cable car fees, so it is not that much more expensive than going by yourself. You get 4 hours on the mountain itself, which is not enough to do the circuit, but the best we could do for a day trip.

We pretty much hit a snag right away - the lady who was taking my order kept pushing me to rent a car. I took down the information and then got my friend (who only speaks English) to call back. This time, she just let us book the tour :> The next day, we were picked up by a small bus at around 7:45, with an understanding that the big bus leaves at about 8:15am. Unfortunately, we were dropped off at the city wall and they basically will not start the tour until they manage to fill up the bus. We ended up leaving at about 9:15. We got to the foot of Hua Shan, first dropped off at a shop where we can pick up supplies. (Yes, lots of people decided to wear heels for the hike. They had to get sneakers.) Then we stopped at a Chinese pharmacy for a demonstration, and finally to a buffet restaurant. By the time we got to the "environmentally friendly" vans, it was already 1pm.

We finally got up the mountain by cable car at about 1:30pm and the tour guide told us that the bus will leave at 6:00pm and that we all had to be on-time or the bus will leave. The actual hike was fun - my friends and I budgeted our time and figured we could probably hit 2 or 3 peaks within the given time, then we can take the cable car back to the bus station then take the bus back to the meeting point. And our timing was pretty spot-on. Unfortunately, nobody else seemed to care that we plan to leave at 6pm.

There were only about 1/2 the people at the meeting point after the 20 minutes grace period the tour guide said she'll give us. By 6:45pm, about 3/4 of the people showed up - some even complained that the tour guide was yelling at them and they weren't even the latest there! The final group showed up at 7:20pm, because they wanted to climb all the peaks and they felt that the meetup time is more a guideline they could ignore. Moral of the story - if you could arrange to go to Huashan by yourself, do it. Stay the night if you want to hike the peaks - otherwise, you're at your tour company and tour mates mercy. (BTW, we weren't the only bus that left much later than the appointed time. We just had the honor of leaving last.)

2 more images

Los chinos no conciven las montañas sin escalones y para subir los 2.200 m de Hua Shan hay unos 5.000 escalones , algunos de ellos tallados directamente en la piedra , con pendientes de más de 60 grados , con una especie de camino colgante y con unos pasamanos hechos con cadenas .
La subida tiene cierto peligro y se pueden tardar cuatro o cinco horas .
La alternativa es subir en el teleférico , que puede tener el inconveniente de que puede haber mucha en la cola para subir , pero una vez que pasas este trámite estarás arriba en la cima Norte en veinte minutos .


The Chinese do not understand mountains without steps and to climb the 2,200 m of Hua Shan there are about 5.000 steps, some of them carved directly into the rock, with slopes of more than 60 degrees, with a kind of hanging road and with handrails made of chains.
The climb has some risk and may take four to five hours.
The alternative is to take the cable car, which may have the disadvantage to find many people in the queue , but once you overcome it you will be in the Peak North in twenty minutes.

Desde la estación salen autobuses hacia Xian en cuanto están llenos , así que lo que hay que hacer es acercarse a la estación y esperar en el autobús a que se llene
Se llega a la calle principal , Yuquan Jie , a lado de las murallas , desde donde puedes cojer un taxi o un bus para ir al centro
Tarda dos horas a Xian y nos costó 26 Yuan

From the bus station they leave to Xian when they are are full, so you must go to the station and wait in the bus when it is full
It arrives at the main street, Yuquan Jie, next to the city walls, from where you can get a taxi or a bus to go to the center
It takes two hours to Xian and we paid 26 Yuan

Train is the cheapest way to get there from Xi An, then take minibus to the foot of the mountain.

Or take long distance bus, or join an organized bus tour.

Or hire a taxi, RMB 200. However, the park has a rather weird policy, that the driver has to pay the RMB 70 admission fee even though he/she is no interested touring the mountain. RMB 20 parking fee for the car. RMB 5 personal insurace is optional seems.

Of course YOU will pay for the driver, or leave the car far from the foot of the mountain, and take local minibus from the admission fee place to the foot of the mountain.

See the narrow winding paths?