Sunday, March 8, 2009

Tai Shan and the Stairway to Heaven

This weekend, I planned a trip to Tai Shan, the holiest mountain in China. Luckily, I didn't have to go by myself - 11 people came with me. We started out on Friday with our backpacks packed and our hiking boots tied on. We headed to the train station. This time, I was lucky and got a hard sleeper just like everyone else. No "no seat" tickets for me. Enraptured with the luxury of the hard sleeper, I fell asleep almost immediately and didn't wake up until 5:20 am, when the train ticket woman banged on the three level bunk beds to let us all know we were at our stop. Apparently not everyone was as impressed with the hard sleepers as I was. Cara and I, who are seasoned train travellers by now after our trip to Qingdao, slept pretty soundly. It sounds like everyone else woke up or had a hard time sleeping.
We were in Jinan when we got off the train, and we needed to catch a bus to Tai'an, where Tai Shan is located. We all caught taxis to the long distance bus station, and then got on a bus to Tai'an. Everyone filled up on KFC and snacks from a convenience store. Jon and I had a debate on whether the chocolate muffins I was eating were really muffins or just cupcakes. I of course argued that they were nutritious muffins, and he was trying to make me believe they were cupcakes. Jon is the one fixing his hair on the bus for the picture, because he is a girl. : )

After an hour and a half, we arrived in Tai'an, and I sent everyone in taxis to Dai Miao, a huge temple at the foot of Tai Shan. Emperors as early as the Song dynasty would go to this temple to make sacrifices to the mountain god before making the pilgrimage up the mountain. The temple complex is quite similar to the Mountain Palace, which I told you about in a previous post, and the Forbidden City, which I haven't seen yet. Dai Miao (or Dai Temple in English) is famous for its ancient cypress trees, most of which are still living, and can be seen throughout the temple.
The Dai Miao also had amazing architecture and these old steles that are called Tortoise Dragon Steles. Apparently there are several different kinds of dragons in China, and one of them really looks like a turtle. I get really excited about this, because I LOVE turtles!Outside the temple, the makers of TaiShan Beer were putting on a beer festival. They had two large blowup bottles of Taishan that encouraged small children to hug them like characters at Disney World. And of course, the beer brand has little girls come out to dance and sing the glories of Taishan beer. This always fascinates me a little bit.

Tala, Ariel, and Liling had skipped Dai Miao and had already started up the mountain by the time we all left the temple and the beer festival. Cara and I weren't hungry, but we grabbed a bag of baozi (stuffed steamed buns) and left for Tai Shan while the other seven climbers went out for lunch. The mountain started at a pretty level pace, and Cara and I took our time exploring all the small sights around the bottom.
We found a huge pillar of magma that had formed thousands of years ago and mysteriously cracked and fell over. Now what is left is a wide, round and flat table coming out of the ground, and what used to be on top of it is lying on its side next to it. The Chinese apparently believed it was a sign from Tai Shan, the mountain god. Another interesting thing we saw was an old tree that one of the emperors had hid under during a thunderstorm. He was making his annual pilgrimage up the mountain, and found five old trees that apparently gave him shelter during the course of the storm. He was so thankful he promoted the trees to royal status.
Cara and I both bought red headbands that pilgrims wear when they climb the mountain. After they make it to the top of the mountain, they typically tie some money to one end of the headband and throw it into a tree to bring peace and safety to their families. I liked mine to much to throw it into a tree. Sorry Mom, Dad, and Marshall, the Chinese Mountain God does not have your back, you'll just have to watch your own.
The stairs started getting steeper, and we wanted to stop for a much needed break. Luckily for us, a woman who picks tea leaves off of the mountain sold tea for 50 cents on the side of the path. She ushered us over and poured us two big mugs of Tai Shan tea with the tea leaves still in the bottom.After about three hours of climbing and sightseeing, Cara and I made it to the mid-point of the climb. We had taken our time getting here, and two of our friends, Richie and Jay, caught up with us at the half point. The other five climbers found us there too. Richie, Jay, Me, and Cara set out ahead of the others, and we proved to be a little bit faster at climbing Tai Shan's 7000 steps than everyone else. We are also all going on spring break together to trek across the Yangzi River, so we like to joke that we had tryouts for the "Yangzi River Adventure" and we all made the team.

The last 2000 steps were very, very hard. It is almost a vertical stretch towards the top of the mountain, a literal stairway to Heaven. I had a heavy backpack on, so every step felt like I was lifting all of my weight and then some with just one leg. By the last 1000 steps, an unceasing climb towards the Gate to Heaven, everyone is hanging on to the hand rails for dear life. And by everyone, I mean us 12 American climbers and thousands of Chinese climbers - old, young, men, and women, who are all coming up to reach the top of the mountain. In fact, we got to talk with many of them. Most of the young people we saw wanted pictures with us, so we made some friends and had some creepy Chinese people try to slyly take pictures of us without our permission. Whenever I caught them I would hold up my own camera like I was going to take a picture of them too. It usually embarrassed them a bit, but I got a kick out of it!Cara and I were very inspired by an old woman in a purple coat who decided to climb the mountain all by herself, but amassed a following of younger women who tried to keep pace with her. She had a walking cane and trudged steadily up the steps, never stopping to take a breath. She yelled out encouragement to all the women climbing with her and eventually to Cara and I as we fell in step with the whole group. Richie and Jay didn't really know what to make of this group of eight women creating a support group as they climbed the final 1000 steps.
And then, finally, the last hundred steps were so painful, and I didn't want to look back because behind me there was only emptiness and a huge, vertical staircase that I could easily fall down if I made a wrong move. But Jay, Richie, Cara, and I all made it to the top and sat down to recover with some new Chinese friends.
On the top we wandered around, grabbing fried dough twists to munch on while we waited for the other eight of us to make it up the mountain. We looked for a hotel to spend the night in on the top, and all the hotels were pretty expensive, and pretty dismal. We each spent ten dollars to stay the night in a hotel which shall not be named. It was the most awful place ever. They waited until after we bought the room to tell us there was no running water because it was frozen, and the heat would not come on until 8pm. A little dejected, the Yangzi River Adventure team strode out onto the top of Tai Shan to get a glimpse at what is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It was cold, and as the sun went down and the sky started to change colors before our eyes, we explored the very edges of the peak of Tai Shan. I'd like to share with you some of the views we had, and ask your forgiveness for the hideous hat I decided to wear, that not only did not stay on my head, but also came to a point at the top and made me look like a cone head.
1. Cara and I hugging on the edge of a cliff in the Sunset
2. The Sunset over a pagoda (only in China)
3. Jay being an idiot
4. A shot over the edge of the peak at the steepest part of the staircase
5. The peak of Tai Shan, complete with a Mountain god temple and a Moon temple
However, although the mountain was breathtaking, the dinner we had was not. We ordered (so really it's our fault) some kind of weird spicy potato shreds and a tofu soup that tasted like dirty dishwater. When we got back to the room, we were all exhausted, and it was only about 6:45pm! However, the room was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Cara and I were sharing a bed, and Jay and Richie had their own beds. However, despite the fact that we were crammed together in this bed, Cara and I were both freezing. So we put on all our clothes and ran around the room, trying to get warm. Finally the Chinese woman came and turned on the heater at 8pm, and we all gave her dirty looks before we fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up at 5:10 am and prepared to hike back down the mountain. Our train out of Jinan was at 10:25 am and we needed to get down the mountain and out of Tai'an, into Jinan and finally be at the train station by 10 am. It was pitch black, and we were all a little nervous about going down the steep, almost vertical steps in the dark without a flash light. But as we passed through the Gate of Heaven and looked down, we could see lights coming up towards us. Hundreds of people were making the morning climb to the top of Tai Shan, and as we gripped the hand rails on our way down, the Chinese people kindly lit the stairs in front of us so we could see where we were going.The biggest surprise came when, about a half an hour into the walk down, a crazy old man who lives on the mountain in a cave came out and started giving us all hugs. He lives in a cave and handcrafts wood souvenirs for tourists, but he also gives free hugs for the climbers. He was a very sweet old man, and gives really good hugs to tired, sweaty people like me!
There were eight of us climbing back down the mountain that day, and after an altercation with the bus driver at the midpoint of the mountain, we finally made it down to Tai'an, where two taxi drivers were patiently waiting to drive us speedily back to Jinan. They knew we were crunched for time, so they drove their taxis through bike lanes and between cars like maniacs to get us there in time for the train. We made it in time and took our three hour fast train back to Beijing. And I finally got to take a hot shower and bath after three days of mountain trekking.

1 comment:

  1. hi hi hi hi hi! i hope when you were freezing in your little terrible hotel you were thinking about how much of a little adventurer you are and how much i would have inevitably complained. :) miss you but glad to see you're enjoying yourself!

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