Taishan Summit or Bust (a definite possibility)

Trip Start Jun 25, 2006
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Trip End Aug 16, 2006


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Friday, August 4, 2006

First stop on my "day off" (ie. my legs still wouldn't move and had to put off climbing for a day) was the Dai Temple in Tai'an. This complex is HUGE and was built to honour the god of Taishan (the mountain) - well worth a stop. After an hour or so of wandering around I spent the rest of the day kinda meandering aimlessly and a bit of internet time. Hung out at the outdoor food market for at least an hour sampling all sorts of goodies - ok, a few gag inducing baddies, but never know if you don't try! Then it was home early to get ready for...

Taishan

Ouch. My legs were improving, but still pretty sore from Huangshan a few days before and Taishan is 6600 pretty damn big steps. Not nearly as crowded though, and with a slow and steady pace managed to plod through in a few hours without really taking any breaks 01 - Dai Temple
01 - Dai Temple
 . Its not nearly as scenic as Huangshan either, but positively overflowing with history - its been climbed by emperors, Mao, Confucious, billions of Chinese, and now, me. At the top they've managed to build a little collection of hotels and restaurants and almost everyone stays a night to have time to take in the multitude of temples at the summit, and to wake up for the famed sunrise.

Woke up at 4:30 to find the mountain taking centre stage in a massive lightning storm. We were basically in the cloud so you couldn't see more than two feet, it was pouring rain, and lightning crackled all around in the gloom above. It was AWESOME! Alas, no sunrise, (well, I mean, I assume it still happened) but the storm was pretty cool in its own right and I'd caught a beautiful sunset the night before so not feeling to cut up about it. After trying to wait out the storm for a few hours in the hotel lobby I gave up and started to slide down the steep stairs in the rain. Eventually the sun poked through and the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Check the pics for a better idea, and on to the next adventure! Bouncing through Beijing to see a friend and dump some stuff, then off to Inner Mongolia to see some grass and ride a horse (or something). Paz,

--Shawn
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