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Without being as popular as the Buddhism, the Taoism keeps a strong influence in the Chinese traditions. Some people credit it to be the only "made in China" religion, the other ones were imported. The Tao concept is the epicenter of the religion and describes how each person must set up his life to keep in harmony with the order of the universe.
The Taoism has its sacred mountains as well and Huashan is one of them. 2 hours by bus from Xi'an, the Huashan small village is the starting point to explore the mountain. Shuttles continuously commute from the village to the access area of the north peak. A cable car prevents us from walking the strenuous ascension.






Easily recognizable with their caps, Chinese tourists outnumber the pilgrims. The group of red caps follows the one of yellow caps. The cable car drops us off by the north peak and we start the unending ups and downs from a peak to the next one, west peak, south peak, east peak and center peak. Without experiencing it as a pilgrimage, the different ascensions need some moral qualities to end the loop and not eluding a peak. An about 5-hour exhausting lap in the middle of white and smooth rock, breathtaking cliffs, lumps of forests nested in the stony chinks, floating temples above an ocean of clouds. Hours of emotions running alonside the summits of the sacred mountain.






The crowd massed at the entrance of the cable car drives us to put in a last effort going down on foot. Inside the gorges, the scenery is marvellous while le last steps are really painful for our legs.