Hi there,

so, finally I am at Xi'an again. Two days ago I left it, and was glad about this, and went to mount Hua Shan, one of the hol y mountains in China. There are several possibilities, (cablecar, climbing path, looooooong foot path with dont now how many 1000 steps).
In the bus going there I met Richard from Canada, we were the only not-chinese tourists in this bus. Finally, after long questions and answers to the guide and the one at the ticketoffice, we decided to start our trip at 23.00 for to be on the east peak for sunrise. So we had dinner together, and ist was much fun, talking about chinese letters, symbols, menus, and so on. At 23.00 we went back to the ticketoffice, and I heard about there were 'natives' doing the same, but I didn't imagine that it was that much! Well, it was natives doing this, and Richard and me, and I saw another non-chinese tourist. The path (the whole way was surfaced, so no footpath like I know at 2100m altitude in the alps...) was steep, narrow, exposed (and at night you couldn't see how deep it's going down at the side), and so crowded!
At the beginning, all chinese were passing by, they had quite a kind of a hurry coming up, but I wanted to go more slowly for not wasting my energy too careless (see, I learnt :). Good Girl! Some hours later, some star-watching-rests later, we started passing all the chinese, that finally were too exhausted to reach the peak. At the top there were about one hundred (or less) people, compared with numbers of people who began the trip... peanuts.
Sunrise was amazing, but cold! well, at least I kept some typical properties: I went up the mountain without windjacket, long trousers and pullover. But as soon as the sun appeared (+ half an hour) it got warmer, and as soon as the sun appeared, the crwod disappeared. lucky us. we just passed strolling the several peaks, and finally we wanted to go down.
The downpath wasn't that much fun, because of steep, slippy, and too small steps (we did kms of tip-toe-trekking ;). But as we both wanted to see the aera sorrounding the stairway (and we didn't see anything at night) we chose this way back as well. The end was really hard. I'm not demure (zimperlich), but it really was exhausting, I think mainly because of no sleep. my knees were shivering/shaking.
The thing that astonished me the most, were the tons of red ribbons and golden locks, that lovers put along the road. They go up togehter, lock the lock at a chain, and then throw away the key.
As this one astounded me that much (not because of the meaning, but because of the pictures), my chinese souvenir this year is one of the red ribbons :)
We arrived Hua Shan Village only at about 4 pm, so we were wandering the mountain for nearly 17 hours - and without sleep. I tried to be really carefully, as I now myself and - miracle! - I didn't get hurt :)
Back at Xi'an (much later than inteded) I found out, that my next aim is too far away to reach it today. so, changing plans, staying the night at a youth hostel (another one. The first was cosy, nice, and friendly. This one is dirty, dinky (schaebig) but at least friendly).
The row for trainticket was approximatly 2 hrs, so back and to bed. I fell asleep at 22 pm...
Today I got up early at 7 am to buy my trainticket. everybody told me it's going to be impossible (and kind of it is - its always really a challenge to try to make myself understood by a chinese clerk, with all that possibilities: hard seats, soft seats, hard bed, soft bed, upper bed, middle bed, lower bed), because I'm using one of the main routes, and there won't be any seats. Well, I have a Ticket now, my train leaves at 17.30 (so one more day to spend at Xi'an), but I don't know if it is a seat or a bed...
Now I'm going for a small place, maybe to rent a bicycle to see something not-touristig: a place you can't find in the lonley planet, but on my chinese roadmap, that I still have and use...
After I'm going to teach english to chinese childre at an english language camp (like the one I went to 15 years ago - guys, I'm getting old... ;), Lorraine organizes this cours (but I think I told this already, right?).
When I am at Chengdu, I finally have some plans:
a) I have to prolong my Visa
b) I need to get back my bike
c) I want to try to get a Visa for Tibet. I changed plans. Maybe it's possible to take the train to Lhasa - must be a great occasion to see the mountains as close as possible, even if Anna and Julius told me the amazing view from the airplane...

as I'm not interested in the giant cities of china (somehow they are all the same) I try to stay a little bit longer here in the montains, so sichuan, qinghai and gansu provinces. Maybe it's possible to do a more-day-hike around somewhere here. I know there are possibilites to do horse-trekking, maybe also this is a good possibility. To Beijing I really want to go at hte last possibility - even if I'm looking forward to see He Xin again, and to learn how to play Mahjong. I think China is a better place than Simmering ;) .
I also wanted to go more to the south, where I didn't intended going at the beginning, but, for telling the truth, I'm a little scared of Malaria... Well, Julius told me, that it is possible here in China to get the Medication at the pharmacy for about 20 Euro, without prescription of a medic... but still I'm not sure.
Susa told me: "against malaria? just don't let you bite"... but as I found out at Chengdu, I'm not so consistent to do this. even if I tried the Nobite(R), i wasn't happy, because my face hurted, when I applied it. so... well, let's see.

So, you see I'm fine.
No pics today, I'm not in a mood for doing this now.
Just off to pack my things, stroll around the city, looking for some inspiring places (as I found one right after the day I wrote I don't like the city) and do a kind of relax today.

At your place it's 3am, so: good night! my day starts right after that point.