Tai Shan & Climbing Mt Tai

We are getting better at the trains now, the journey to Tai'an was painless. Tai'an was a bit of a surprise, from what i gathered from reading the book i imagined it to be a little town at the foot of a big mountain. The place was buzzing, it was hotter than anywhere we had been and was full of life. Markets, street stalls, street vendors and probably the worst condition roads i have ever seen.

We walked down a few roads and manage to get a crowd surrounding us asking for directions to a hostel, Chinese people love to help westeners and test out their English. After 20 minutes wandering the streets hopelessly we decided to get a cab to take us to a hotel. We got dropped off at Yuzou hotel which charges 200+ yuan per night, a bit out of our price range, after asking a few locals to point us in the direction of Jixiang hotel (charges 40 yuan per night) we found ourselves settled in a spacious 2 bed room with probably the most hardest beds in China, literally 2 towels on a wooden box, that was it, no exaggeration. We didnt care £4 a night we are happy to have a roof over our heads.

We decided to hit the mountain tomorrow and just walk around for the first day. Where we were staying was right outside a temple wall with a park on the other side. It was really nice, especially at dusk.

Tai'an is quite small, it has a few large markets and some shopping malls and thats pretty much it, oh and of course Mt tai.

We had one of the worst nights sleep in China so far, i woke up with about 6 mosquito bites on my arm, i fell asleep and forget to put on the repellent. I got up to find the repellent and woke tom up in the process, though i think he was already awake due to the punishing pain of the bed.

We spent probably the next hour or so trying to kill all the mosi's in the room. We both cant sleep when we know they are buzzing around our heads. It was about 3am now and we had a mountain to climb in the morning. After a failed effort of trying to kill them we put up our nets. Thinking i was safe from the little bastards i turned on my torch to see if any where landing on the net, i managed to shine the light instantly on one that landed on the net, shouting out to Tom 'haha the fuckers cant get through' the little mosi just crawled its way through the net and started buzzing around in the net, i couldn't believe it. At this point i could not be assed to do anything, we didnt get much sleep but luckily the repellent kept them at bay. Im hoping it was a baby mosquito or something and maybe its only the female adults that feed. Have to wait and see.

The following day we woke up about 9am to head off to reach the top of Mount Tai, the excitment was brewing, a 20 minute bus ride and we were at the base of the mountain....it looked a lonnngggg way up to the top. Entrance fee was 60 yuan to get in. We set off up a road that we saw the tour buses going up, the walk was really nice, it wasnt too strenuous, it was a constant incline for about 3 hours but the sights took your mind off it. Going from the guide book we was led to believe that the route we were walking up would lead us to the summit. After 3 hours of walking we realised that this only took us to a cable car, we walked up and around another mountain to get to Mt Tai, where the mountain we had walked up was an easy steady incline, Mt Tai was not, the only way up was a cable car which was pretty annoying because we wanted to walk up there but it would of taken 8 hours extra, at the least, and probably the death of one of us to reach the top.

After paying 140 yuan for a return ticket on the cable car we stepped inside a gondola and headed up to the summit. The journey was about 8-10 minutes and we really gained some height in that time, ive never been in a gondala that climbed up so rapidly, the views got more and more sublime, and the drop below us grew each time i looked down.

After jumping off the cable car we stepped out onto the summit of Mt tai, there are temples, hostels to sleep the night and a few shops that sell incense to burn and a few things to eat and drink.

The views were amazing, its above all the other mountains in the area and you're on top of it all, it was cold, windy and rainy at the summit, wearing shorts and a tshirts we quickly whacked on our jackets, avoiding the wet and the laughs from the locals.

We walked about few 30 mins trying to get to the highest point in the area, we went off the paved trail and decided to see if we could get any higher. We saw an overhanging piece of rock that looked like it was the highest point on the mountain, it overlooked the little mountain village and looked like it was the best place to get a view of everything. Pushing our way through some bushes we made it to the rock. I stepped up first and shouted out to Tom 'fucking hell, you got to see this'. We were on top of the world, we could see all the mountains below us and even the city Tai'an where we were staying. I noticed a group of other tourist who had gathered below us on the paved trail, more and more people started to stop and stare up at us, it was like a scene from a film or something, here was this group of people all pointing up at this large figure on top of the mountain overlooking everything, i pulled off my hood and let the wind blow through my hair, they probably thought i was moses or something :P, then behind me an even larger figure appeared, resting his hand on my shoulder peering down at all the tiny humans. I put up my hand and started to wave at them, they all didnt respond straight away, probably still thinking what the fuck, how did they get up there. After a few moments they all waved back at us, then as soon as we appeared to these people we disappeared into the bushes. Mind drifting a bit but it was a funny moment, i wanted to get some pics of us at the top but the wind and rain made it impossible, you're just going to have to believe me.

Walking around a bit more we ended up in someone's back garden, we really did go off the paved trail. A chap came out of a door and we walked past and said hello, he was in shock, he didnt reply, just starring at us as we walked past, after the tour of a back garden we headed up to a shrine, it was the only place i had a chance of getting a pic, it was raining quite heavily and i still couldn't get it out in the open (cue sexual enuendos).

There was a disbanded building overlooking the mountains i didnt know why anyone wasnt living there, the views must of been amazing from the windows. After a few snaps we headed off to the cable car and made our way down.

The wind was picking up and the ride down was bumpy, the gondola was swaying from side to side, it got a bit scary, i kept having the thought 'its gona drop riggghhhhhttttt now' saying that out loud really didnt help Tom's nerves, but looking back was worth it.

The rain was still falling when we reached the bottom of the cable car and a 3 hour walk back in the rain really didnt appeal to us, we got a tour bus the way down and headed back home.

All in all a really good day, the views of Mt Tai are amazing, some of the best views ive ever seen.

After conquering what we come here to do we had nothing else but to head to Kaifeng, plus the beds were seriously bone numbingly bad!

Again China is not letting me do much with this block so i cant embed any pics, but you can see a few snaps from Tai Shan. Unfortunately, as i said before, i didnt manage to get many pics up on the mountain due to the rain.

Click here to see my pics from Tai Shan