Blogs from Tai Shan, Shandong, China, Asia

Travelling in Shangdong province and stopping by to Tai'an city is mandatory just to climb the sacred mountains in the Shandong province. It is a very revered place and thousands of people everyday come here to climb it. Also important political figures like Chairman Mao did climb Taishan mountain. As I was saying, this mountain has got a great spiritual importance, especially, for those practising Taoism. There are some 7,200 steps to get to the top but the splendid panorama you will witness will be worth of the straggle. Though very prestine and interesting, also here, the mountain now is assaulted by masses of tourists coming from allover China to visit it and the magical ambiance that is described in books and the stories of the past has disappeared. Said that, I love these kind of ... read more

I love it when nothing goes according to plan. Today, what could go wrong, did indeed go wrong. I have frost bitten fingers and blisters to prove it ! I am typing this with my elbow. We set off for the short drive to Taishan at noon. We'd all decided to take the bus and cable car to the top and then walk the 7000+ steps down. Little did we know that the rest of China shared the same plan. It was, after all, the start of the Tomb Sweeping Holidays. We reached the misty top and took pictures and hunkered down on onion pancakes whilst Cao Li nibbled a cucumber. All of a sudden the cold front moved in from Siberia, and after a couple of hours at the top, we decided that the cable ... read more

The coach driver was insistent that this was our stop. I was less convinced. For starters it didn’t look like a bus stop. Bus stops normally have rickety shelters and old ladies discussing the price of vegetables. At the very least there should be a disaffected teenager dragging on a fag. This had nothing. In fact, casting a gaze up and down the road it appeared we weren’t in a town at all; our current location looked more like a highway. There were two lanes of traffic rumbling past in both directions, a central reservation and a hard shoulder. The next we knew of it we were stood next to our bags contemplating our predicament as the coach door wheezed to a close and the bus spluttered off on its way. There are certain things I ... read more

Dana and I decided to climb a holy Taoist mountain in China. We chose the grandest in both beauty and size: Tia’Shan. Thankfully our friend John helped us buy our train tickets as the woman didn’t speak a word of English and we didn’t want to risk pronouncing the name incorrectly and ending up in the wrong city. China has an amazing fleet of bullet trains. They run on schedule to the minute, so there is always a frantic dash to get on the train when it pulls into the station as it’s not waiting for anyone! The train we were on went at 200km/hour and whizzed through the country side (or rather power plants and industrious areas) and arrived in a random station where we were supposed to transfer to a local train to reach ... read more

I travelled up Mt Tai (Taishan) today. I've been wanting to do it for some time. Obviously Dave is still reeling from the mountain in Costa Rica so I invited one of my colleagues at work, Jojo, to join me. Her animal sign is the Ox and it's considered lucky if she climbs the mountain in 'her' year. The day was long. It took us 5 1/2 hours to climb to the top gate (of course, I'm stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures) and then a couple of hours around the little town and up to the highest point. Then it was a 3 hour descent. I had read many different versions of how many steps there are on this mountain. I think you will be either impressed or think us mad. But here are ... read more