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Hua Shan (literal meaning 'China Mountain') is one of China's five sacred Taoist peaks, and is a spectacular adventure, whether it's hiking up at night, hiking around the four peaks, staying overnight up there or doing the plank walk. I say be careful of the weather because when we were there in mid-August, the mist was thick and fast both days we were there, and we barely saw any scenery, which was a great shame, but obviously you can't fit the weather to your plans. We still had a great time.
It's easy to get to Hua Shan from Xi'an, either the bullet train (25mins) or a bus (2hrs) - your hostel should be able to tell you where from. Hua Shan is made up of four peaks (north, south, east, west), and you can hike around to all of them at the top. Everything is well signposted, in Chinese, English, Japanese and sometimes Korean. There are two cable cars, going to the north peak and the west peak. I'd recommend doing the west peak cable car for at least one of your journeys up the mountain, because (even through the mist!) the scenery was spectacular as you ascend/descend the mountain. If you want to walk up, most people go up from the visitor's centre (open 24hrs) from ground level to the north peak - about 3-5hrs, depending on fitness. From there, it's about another 2hrs to the east peak, and I imagine a similar time to other peaks.
It's easy to get to Hua Shan from Xi'an, either the bullet train (25mins) or a bus (2hrs) - your hostel should be able to tell you where from. Hua Shan is made up of four peaks (north, south, east, west), and you can hike around to all of them at the top. Everything is well signposted, in Chinese, English, Japanese and sometimes Korean. There are two cable cars, going to the north peak and the west peak. I'd recommend doing the west peak cable car for at least one of your journeys up the mountain, because (even through the mist!) the scenery was spectacular as you ascend/descend the mountain. If you want to walk up, most people go up from the visitor's centre (open 24hrs) from ground level to the north peak - about 3-5hrs, depending on fitness. From there, it's about another 2hrs to the east peak, and I imagine a similar time to other peaks.
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