When I visited Xi’an, my friends and classmates all recommended that I visit Hua Shan, or Flower Mountain. It is named Flower Mountain because its peaks reminded the ancient Chinese of flower petals, and it is one of China’s five sacred mountains. With its highest point standing over 7,200 feet high, the top of the mountain is home to a few ancient Taoist temples. In the past, Taoist monks would climb to the top of the mountain to find a peaceful place to contemplate life and the universe. Today, it is a popular tourist destination for Chinese people and foreigners alike. A friend who had visited the mountain previously suggested that I begin climbing the mountain around midnight with a flashlight in hand so that I could reach the top by sunrise. No way!
I took an alternative method to reach the peak of the mountain – an Austrian built cable car. The quick 20-minute ride on a smooth cable car also provided me with panoramic views from hundreds of feet above the mountain. The whole ride, I had two questions in my mind – how did the Taoist monks climb this mountain in ancient times, before steps and ladders were put in for modern day tourists and adventure seekers to climb up, and what kind of genius engineering feat made it possible to build such a smooth cable car along such a steep mountain?
As I was pondering how convenient it was that a modern cable car was built on an ancient mountain, I arrived at the peak. On each peak, I was greeted with beautiful temples which then made me wonder – is STEM all about creating convenience for modern society? After all, to build the cable cars, modern technologies and instruments were used.
