Dangerous, hair-raising hikes

Mount Hua is located in the Shaanxi Province, about 120 kilometres east of the city of Xi'an and is one of China's Five Sacred Taoist Mountains with the highest peak at 2160 m.Huashan has a variety of temples and other religious structures on its slopes and peaks.
Mt Huashan trail is regarded as one of the most dangerous trails.

There are two walking trails leading to Huashan's North Peak (1613 m), the lowest of the mountain's five major peaks. The most popular is the traditional route in Hua Shan Gorge first developed in 3rd to 4th century. It winds for 6 km from Huashan village to the north peak. A new route in Huang Pu Gorge that follows the cable car to the North Peak.

From the North Peak, a series of paths rise up to the Canglong Ling, which is a climb more than 300 meters on top of a mountain ridge. This was the only trail to go to the four other peaks, the West Peak (2038 m), the Center Peak (2042 m), the East Peak (2100 m) and the South Peak (2160 m),

The inherent danger of many of the exposed, narrow pathways with precipitous drops gave the mountain a deserved reputation for danger. As tourism has boomed and the mountain's accessibility vastly improved with the installation of the cable car in the 1990s, visitor numbers surged.

Despite the safety measures introduced by cutting deeper pathways and building up stone steps and wider paths, as well as adding railings, fatalities continued to occur. Some of the most precipitous tracks have actually been closed off.

The former trail that leads to the South Peak from North Peak is on a cliff face, and it was known as being extremely dangerous; there is now a new and safer stone-built path to reach the South Peak temple, and on to the Peak itself.

Admiring the View on Top of Mount Hua, a Granite Peaked Mountain in the Shaanxi Province, China



Pilgrims Scale Huashan, One of China's Five Sacred Mountains



Chinese People Waiting for Sunrise on Top of Hua Shan, 2160M, Shaanxi Province, China



Pavilion on Hua Shan, a Granite Peaked Mountain, 2160M, Shaanxi Province, China

Camino del Rey, or more precisely El Caminito del Rey is a walkway, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, in the district of Málaga in Spain. The name means in English "The King's little pathway".

Workers at the hydroelectric power plants at Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls needed a walkway to cross between the falls, to provide for transport of materials, and for the inspection and maintenance of the channel, so the walkway was build in 1905. The construction process took four years, it was started in 1901.

The walkway is one meter ( ca. 3 feet) in width, and rises over 100 meters (350 feet) above the river below. It is currently in a highly deteriorated state and there are numerous sections where part of or the entire concrete top has collapsed away. The result is large open air gaps that are bridged only by narrow steel beams or other support fixtures. Very few of the original handrails exist but a safety-wire runs the length of the path. Due to a series of fatal accidents (several people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years) the local government closed both entrances and urgent repairs are planned to the deteriorating state of the walkway.

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