A while ago I’ve been to Hua Shan, a mountain not far from Xi’an. I’ve went there with Hu Yuan, my Xi’an friend, and on the way we’ve picked up another traveller who was going there by himself. We’ve started the climb at night and arrived on top in time to see the sunrise.

On the way I had a chance to see an interesting phenomenon: Locks. There are certain places in the mountain in which it is customary to attach a lock to the railings, and then throw away the key - typically into one of the mountain’s abysses. Each lock symbolizes something, and the belief is that as long as the lock remains locked that “something” will remain. There are four popular “types” of locks (the locks themselves are the same, what matters is the intention of the person who locks them):

• Young couples attach a lock of “same heart”, representing common mutual feelings between the lovers.
• Old people attach a lock of “longevity”, representing a long and healthy life.
• People in bad health (or old people) attach a lock of “health”, representing.. well… health.
• Married couples attach a lock of “peace and harmony”, representing a peaceful family life.

One area of the mountain actually has signs dividing it into several sections, each section meant for a different type of lock. Some of the locks are small while others are really big and makes one wonder why would a person carry such a heavy lock all the way up the mountain:

And here are a few more pictures from up there, just because people were complaining that I’m not posting enough of them: