Tai Shan

Time I did one of these or I'll completely lose track-just finished my dinner of cold BBQ duck, tofu and spring onion in soy sauce, baozi (a sort of dumpling/spring roll) and the sweetest cherry tomatoes I've ever eaten(all purchased from the local market for less than a pound) washed down with a cold Tsingtao while watching the latest World Cup match.  Life is hard!

After the excesses of Shanghai I thought I should do something a bit more healthy and spiritual, so decided to tackle Tai Shan, one of China's most sacred mountains, steeped in Taoist and Buddhist tradition and climbed by everyone from Qin Shi Huang (the first Emperor, who chose it's summit to declare China a country in 219 BC) through Confucius to Chairman Mao, and still a magnet for tens of thousands of Chinese pilgrims every year. 

Packing up after Friday's classes I headed for the bus station and the 6 hour journey (that 's close by Chinese standards) via Ji-nan to Tai-an, and after checking in to a hotel went to scout out the town.  Dinner was a selection of deep fried meat and vegetable kebabs from a nearby stall eaten at knee-achingly low tables by the roadside-Grandma clearing tables and babysitting while mom served and dad cooked. That extended family togetherness is such a big part of the lifestyle here and so nice to see, and after trying a corn on the cob from the stall next door (I think it had been boiling for at least 4 hours too long, and no butter or salt meant it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for) and saying my goodbyes I wandered off to digest and have a look around. The organized markets run till late at night, there are people everywhere with their wares laid out on blankets by the side of the road and the area around the central square was packed with souvenir stalls selling stone and jade carvings of the mountain and attendant Gods and Goddesses, but deciding I already had enough to carry I resisted temptation and retired for the night.

Saturday dawned hot and hazy, and it was off to Dai Meio-a temple complex that was the traditional starting point for the climb. A few hours strolling round the various temples, cypress, calligraphy and bonsai gardens with the aroma of incence wafting everywhere, a display on the geology of the area including a model of the mountain showing the climb and a first proper look at the mountain itself and then it was back to collect my climbing partner from the bus station and a taxi to the base of Tai Shan.

Stepping under the wisteria covered archway inscribed “The place where Confucius began his ascent”-(I have to take their word for it as my recognition of written Mandarin is limited to my name, Canada and the numbers from 1-99), we set off at a brisk pace up the gentle incline, commenting that the estimated time of 4 hours for the climb would be no problem. Walking along this part of the trail it struck me that the Chinese were probably the creators of graffiti as everywhere you looked were poems, prayers and musings on life in general carved into the rocks-some in grand scale and in places that today’s artists? would be proud to claim.

Every time we stopped to look at anything, or even slowed down we were inundated with requests for pictures, so if the teaching thing doesn’t work out, I can probably make a living posing, (a better one than selling my body) so we steadily made our way up to ”The Midway Gate to Heaven”, where the two routes from the bottom meet, the road ends and it’s either cable car or “The Path of Eighteen Bends” to the top. Though privately thinking by this time that the cable car looked pretty inviting, we publicly scoffed at the idea and made our way past the shrines surrounded by trees filled with ribbons and incense burners festooned with locks (they write their prayers on the ribbons or have them engraved on the locks and after making an offering tie them to the trees or lock them onto the shrine as reminders for the gods) and through the crowds on their way down to where the real climbing began.

As we went higher and higher, the views became better, and the stairs became steeper (and apparently taller-I kept stubbing my toes),and as the chinese grandmothers began to pass us we realized we weren't quite as fit as we thought. We stopped for a look back and a Red Bull (no it doesn't give you wings) on the step marked 200m to go, only to turn the next bend and realize the markings were altitude not distance-it was at least another 1/2 a mile to the summit, and when we finally passed through the "South Gate to Heaven" on shaking legs it did feel like heaven to sit down. There is a whole town on the top of the mountain catering for the hordes that come up, and glad now for the extra clothes we had been cursing while we climbed, we rewarded ourselves with a few beers and the local specialty, made on a griddle that revolved like a potters wheel, a paper thin pancake layered with egg and wrapped around a giant spring onion and sausage, then bedded down ready for the 4 am wake-up call to see the sunrise.

Luckily my internal alarm woke me about ten past, cause the call had not come, and leaving the room after gulping down a coffee we nearly tripped over a body-the hallway was lined with the sleeping bags of those on the real budget option-climb during the night, kip down for an hour or so, watch the sunrise then go back down!  We joined the crowds stumbling through the dark, and as we reached the eastern side and the sky began to lighten took our place in the crowd 20 deep along the whole cliff.  The band of cloud along the horizon didn't bode well, became pink, daylight appeared, but just as we thought we would be disappointed a pink sliver appeared above the cloud, and rapidly became a perfect orb, rising above the mist filled valleys below and the black mountain ranges marching away in the distance-magical! It disappeared again behind the next band of cloud soon after, so after a quick visit to the other temples on the summit (and nearly being blown over by the wind) we headed down. The first part of the descent was nearly more painful than the climb-(my quads took a week to recover!), but as we passed the stallholders carrying their goods up the stairs on poles balanced over their shoulders I was glad to be going the other way. We were early enough to beat the crowds so it was a peaceful trip back down and we could check out what we missed on the way up and admire the views.

Lucky enough to get a direct bus back to Pingdu, I settled back for a snooze and arrived back in time to plan some lessons for my little darlings and check out the guidebook for my next excursion....

Zai jian,

Mike