泰山 (Taishan = Mount Tai)

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Ken, Patrick, Paul and I took a midnight - 7 am train Friday night - Sat morning, hiked Taishan, watched the sunrise Sunday morning, explored Tai'an, took a 8 pm - 5:30 am train Sunday night - Mon morning and made it back in time for class!

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Photos

Walking down to the train...
The platform was dark with colorful lights.

On the train
We took hard seats （硬座）overnight and there were many people who only had standing tickets. The train was kind of crazy but less crazy than I expected after reading about hard seats on the internet. Also the seats were not hard and moderately roomy, maybe about the same as airplane seats. I got some sleep. You can see all the people in the picture!

Near the Middle Gate of Heaven
Halfway there...

A famous bridge
It's been around for at least a hundred years.

Oh boy
We've been climbing for hours and we can see there is still much left to do!

A man selling magical mushrooms
They're supposed to be really good for you or something.

南天门！
~4000 feet of elevation gain and ~6000 steps later... at last - the South Gate to Heaven.

View from the top
Mountains forever!

Hotel room
Then we booked our hotel room and took showers. Such accommodations on a mountain top (and the shops and restaurants all the way up) seemed so strange to me!!

In the clouds
One is creeping in from behind the left peak...

Bam!
Clouds everywhere now.

In the mist
A staircase to nowhere.

Lone Ken
In his rented military coat.

The CUA climbs Taishan!!
When you are on top of Taishan, you must drink a large bottle of Taishan beer!

Good morning
At 4:30 am, walking out to see the sunrise.