Absolutely Awesome - To say short and sweet: Ted was absolutely an awesome guide to Hua Mtns for my family. I have a 10 year old boy and a 14 year old girl. We had been touring China for about 2 weeks when Ted suggested we leave a bit earlier the next morning....before 7:30. We made sure we were ready to roll by 7am to help beat the crowds out of Xian. We all enjoyed our hike around the four peaks after taking the cable car up. The cable car was amazing. Ted kept my 10 year old engaged and entertained for hiking with lots of fun photos. Ted was knowledgable and very easy to understand his English which was excellent with a nice English accent.

Majestic Mountain, Wonderful Tour, Still a Little Sore - Over the past decade I have visited many mountains in China, but Huashan was still on my must see list. Huashan looms over the small city of the same name like a castle. In contrast to mountains with a single summit, Huashan has numerous peaks, enabling you to hike from peak to peak. Given our fitness level and the amount of time we had, our guide, Sunday, suggested we start at the West Peak and make our way to the East Peak and then finish at the North Peak. The cable car ride up to the West Peak seemed to go on forever, offering incredible vistas, as we went up and over an intermediate peak. From there we hiked up to the West Peak overlook, which offered a spectacular view of the valley below. The trails on the mountain top were paved in stone, typical for China, and provided 1,000s of steps along the way. In addition to the natural scenery there are numerous temples, places to snack, and places to attach ribbons or locks for good luck. Stopping along the way for a drink or a tea-egg offered us a chance to sit and rest our legs. The route we chose was less strenuous compared to other options, such as starting at the north peak cable car, but was still challenging. My legs were sore for several days afterwards, due to all the steps. The rock on Huashan seemed pretty homogeneous, a fractured granite with large feldspar crystals in a fine-grained matrix. A perfect example of the porphyritic texture I learned about in introductory geology class in college. The numerous fractures resulted in some spectacular cliff faces, similar to the rock walls in Yosemite. There was one spot, where for an additional charge, you could don a harness and cables to walk along a cliff-face hundreds of feet above the surface below. I didn't try that and chose the safer detour. Our guide, Sunday, warned us of the possibility of rain, and she was spot on, as it started to rain heavily just as we descended the mountain. This added another aspect as we witnessed several cascades and waterfalls that began abruptly with the downpour. Given that our chosen route required five different tickets (entrance ticket, shuttle bus to the West Peak cable car ticket, West Peak cable car ticket, North Peak cable car ticket, and finally a shuttle bus ticket from the North Peak cable car to the starting point) having a tour guide was a necessity. She saved us an incredible amount of time and effort. Not only that, her bright and friendly disposition, her tremendous knowledge of China, and her fluent English made her a joy to be with. A few closing remarks about Sunday. In the decade or more that I have been travelling to China I have experienced the full spectrum of English-speaking guides. From guides that barely communicated to fluent speakers. From guides that seemed like they were reciting from rote to those that knew everything about the places we visited. From guides that tried to hustle or cheat me to guides that made sure no one even tried to rip me off. I can say, without any reservations, that Sunday is the best tour guide I have ever hired, not only in China, but anywhere in the world. If you have the option, please request Sunday to be your guide. You will be glad you did.