Mount Huashan is known as the most dangerous hike in the world. The most dangerous section of the hike is the infamous plank road which is a small wooden plank affixed to the side of the cliff that has allegedly resulted in many deaths in the past.
Verdict: Not as scary as I had thought because the safety clips make it quite safe, and the plank is wider than I imagined. But my palms were sweaty everytime you look down the cliff.
Bucket list rating: 4 out of 5.
Cost: 1 out of 5
To find out about the Mount Huashan hike, I went online and started searching on Google and Baidu. And … the results were pretty scary. As you can see from these blogs, it appears that Mount Huashan is the renowned as the most dangerous hike in the world, with lots of “unreported” deaths each year. The word “unreported” freaked me out. What does this mean? How could things be unreported in this day and age? Mystified, I did my digging to continue my investigation. I still couldn’t find much.
I guess if other travel bloggers and tourists have done it before and didn’t die, then it’s not a problem. Moreover, if there were issues, the Chinese government would certainly have shut it down! So, I reassured myself and flew in to Xian along with my friend, and subsequently took the high-speed rail to the Huashan North station. Upon arriving and after some intense deliberating, we decided to stay a night at the top of Mount Huashan, to have a better experience. I dropped my bulkier suitcase at a storage shop right outside the station. From there, the shopkeeper cunningly sold me some gloves and headlight saying I’d need it. It was cheap anyway, so I bought it.
Being unfit and lazy, we decided to take a cab to the cable car station, and take the cable car up rather than hike five to six hours of stairs in the evening (though there are lamps along the way). This still left us the question of whether to take the West or North cable car. We picked the North cable car station in the end, as it was at a lower altitude (around 1,600m), which meant that we still needed to hike upwards to see the Central, East and West peaks and the plank road at the South peak.
The ride up the North cable car was stunning and wobbly, and definitely not for those with an intense fear of heights. By the time we reached the North cable car station, it was already around 5pm and getting dark soon, so we immediately started the hike. The game plan was to walk through the North and Central peaks and stay overnight at the East peak lodge to watch the sunrise. We took around an hour and a half to conquer the steep staircase to reach the Central peak, watching the sunset along the way. The trail was, surprisingly, quite empty, pleasant and easy to walk at this hour.
Because we took way too many photos along the way, we ended behind schedule. Fortunately, there were plenty of shops and lodges in Mount Huashan and we stayed overnight in the Central peak instead for around RMB150. Do NOT expect too much. The lodge serves spicy instant noodles (which you will be immensely grateful for), dirty toilets (which you won’t be grateful for) and a dirty mattress (which you will feel disgusted by).
Given how cold it was and how dirty the mattress was, I didn’t actually sleep much. I ended up checking my phone and waiting until it was time to depart. As sunrise takes place at the East peak at around 6am, we woke up an hour earlier and resumed our trek from the Central peak to East peak. Along with us were gazillion of other tourists, who were all making their way to the East peak (each with their headlamps). Along the trek, we had to climb some very steep inclines with man made ladders next to them. To be honest, it wasn’t that hard climbing these ladders. The scariest thing was probably the risk of the gazillion of persons that were on the same ladder above you and the risk of them falling on me.
We eventually reached the East peak at 5:45am just ahead of sunrise, and it was a massive disappointment. The crowds were already there and blocking our view. We could barely see a thing. After some time, and visibly frustrated, we decided to give up watching the sunrise and continue our journey towards South peak (i.e., the plank road). Best choice ever. We ended up watching the sunrise on route to South peak without anyone and without any obstruction. It was easy to navigate around the mountain as there were sign posts everywhere (although they are in Chinese).
Because we made our way to the South peak early, we reached South peak and the plank road at around 6:45am. We were fortunate to arrive at this time as the plank road opened at around 8am and the queue for the plank road soon started to form. We would probably have missed our train in the afternoon had we arrived any later.
The plank road itself was, as advertised, very narrow. Each wooden plank was probably no more than 2-3 feet wide. As we stood next to the cliff, the staff would closely monitor how many people were on the plank road at the same time and enforce an “one in one out policy”. I’m glad the staff did that, as these flimsy looking wooden planks would surely collapse if everyone stood on them! When it was our turn, the staff provided us a safety harness along with safety clips. The idea was that you would always hook the clips along the rope that was affixed to the cliff at all times so you don’t fall. While this was actually a relief, if someone wanted to kill another person, all you needed to do was to intentionally unhook their safety clip (incredible)!
The plank road was around 40 to 50 meters in length. You had to walk to the end of the plank road (where there was a little monastery) and then back. As I walked the plank road, I peered down the cliff and it was incredibly scary. The cliff was roughly 90 degree steep and the wooden plank was simply embedded into the cliff. If my safety clip was accidentally unhooked, any slip by me would certainly have been the end.
The journey to the little monastery at the end of the plank road was actually relatively straightforward. It was the journey back that scared me. On the way back, you had to take the same plank road back to the starting point. Now, you’re going to ask me how on earth is this actually possible – how can you actually fit two people on the plank road (one walking towards the monastery and the other walking back to the starting point) at the same time? The person returning would walk on the outer edge of the plank, and would have to go over the person walking towards the monastery.
Imagine a fat person blocking your way (and no, I’m not being discriminatory here, I’m just being factual), you would literally have to balance on one leg and rely on your safety hook as you go over him. Fortunately, I encountered no fat person. I did, however, have to somehow maneuver myself over a wailing girlfriend who was crouched on the plank road, and refusing to move because she was too scared. It took a bit of skill to go over her – the trick was not to look down!
Overall, I actually felt safer than was advertised. The plank was actually wider than I imagined and at no point did I feel like I was going to fall (or some asshole was going to take out my safety clip).
Additional information
| When to do it? | All year around. |
| How to book? | No need to book. Just rock up for tickets |
| How much does it cost? | Huashan cable car tickets costs CNY120. |
| How to get there? | Huashan North Station by high speed rail |
| How long does it take? | Around 5-6 hours to go through all the peaks if you take the cable car up |
| Is it difficult/safe? | Safer than I expected! |
| What to wear? | No requirements. |
| Language | Chinese (don’t expect any English support). |