Sunrise at Tai'shan

01Nov: I arrrived in Tai'an and made my way to the cheapest hotel recommended by the Lonely planet. It wasn't cheap. One of the most expensive so far. 230 Yuan per night but I had a private bathroom and tv. It was nice to have a lovely bed and no cockroaches.
I went to the Dai temple which was the main sight in Tai'an besides the mountain. It was a lovely place and very tranquil. I ended up buying a fu tablet. One bit you leave at the temple with your name etc. on it and tie it to a wall near oone of the gods. The other half,you bring home. There were hundreds of them there. So it had to be done. As I was hungry I went in search of food and on the way was waylaid by this lovely girl and guy from this restaurant, who spoke t me in English. this tends to garner my attention when I am hungry. I thought I might as well go in as at least if they hadn't an English menu there might be a chance that they might understand me. As it happens, there was an English menu. I got this nice chicken dish and sweet potato. They must have wanted to treat me really specially, as they gave me the choicest chicken bits. I found a whole chicken head including moveable beak. AND a tasty foot. But the rest I more or less polished off. The sweet potato came out carmelised. With the sugar coating still crystalising and the idea being you dunk the pieces of sweet potato into a little bowl of cold water on the side, to harden the sugar coating. It was actually really nice.
The next day I had a hearty western breakfast in a very western but Chinese cafe. Real posh, shame on me but it was lovely.
I changed some money and met a lovely Aussie/English couple in the bank and chatted for a while before heading to my main target: The fabulous Tai'Shan. Basically a mountain that is one of the 5 most important Taoist sacred places in China. I took about 3hrs to climb to the Midway gate to Heaven. I.e. the halfway point. There were loads of little temples on the way up but it was a tough climb, as it was mostly steps and they were steep in places. But there were numerous elderly Chinese with walking sticks and wizened faces, making their way up. If they could do it then what was I moaning for. It was a beautiful day and it was a lovely hike. It was about 3.30 when I arrived at the halfway point and I booked into the hostel for the night. Afterwards I went for a bit of a wander around this little hamlet. It had a few restaurants, hotels and lots of sounvenir sellers and that was pretty much it. I had a few hours to kill before going to bed so I went to one little hotel with a terrace and the lady asked if I wanted some tea so I thought fab idea. Just what I wanted. I sat there for an hour or so watching the bus loads of tourists arrive. They had taken the easy route and not walked. Hah! I felt quite smug. This lasted for about 5 minutres until I went to pay for my tea. I hadn't asked the price. Doh. I thought how expensive can a cup of tea be? I had been to a teashop in Beijing and the most expensive was 100 yuan for a pot. That was also with someone sitting at the table with you and pouring each little cup of tea AND it was speciality tea. I thought I was relatively safe. Hah what a fool. I underestimated the greed, wiliness and the scent for the tourist dollar. 330 I was charged. I thought it was 33.30 which is quite expensive anyway for tea in China. BUT 330 was taking the biscuit. I couldn't believe it. I tried arguing but to no avail. I could have had afternoon tea and cucumber sandwiches in the Ritz for what it cost me. That will teach me to be ask next time. I was annoyed at myself for being so silly but that was really unbelievable. It did lave a bitter aftertaste so to speak.
Anyway, I went back to my room read and slept a bit until the alarm went at 1am. Yes 1am. I had to get up, to get up to the top of the mountain for the sunrise.

As I was walking up, I realised that maybe I had left a little early. There was no one else around and only some of the souvenir sellers were beginning to stir. A bad sign. But I carried on and eventually I could hear people clacking away with their walking sticks and I knew I was no longer alone. The peace was slightly shattered. It was lovely climbing up in the dark. There were various lights emanating from the little food/souvenir stands along the route. I was able to watch the locals stiring before their major sales pitches got into full swing. About 3.15 I got to about 30 min from the top. I had done the climb in about an hour and a half. BummerI had at least 2hrs before sunrise or so I thought. But I was not alone and before long I could hear the usual hello and I was joined by about 10 students who soon adopted me and it was with them that I climbed to the top of Tai'shan. We went in search of a good view point for the elusive sunrise with the help of my trusty torch and LP. The sun decided it didn't want to get up early that morning and it was about 6.45 before the actual sun could be seen even though we had light from about 5.40. It was a bit of a hazy sunrise but there was a round of applause by those that had risen like me to view it. I had the prerequisite photoshoot with my new found Chinese friends and we swapped email addresses. They were soooo lovely and kind. I made my way down the mountain again, after checking out any remaining temples or sights I had missed in the dark. I collected my bag from the hotel in Tai'an and got a a tuk tuk to the bus station, only to find out the buses for Qufu didn't leave every 30 min as per the LP. I had to wait 3.5 hrs but I just stayed in the bus station reading my lp as I was not going to carry my rather heavy rucksack around more.

Eventually I got my ticket and went out and just shouted Qufu at any bus in the station til I found the right one. Luckily Qufu is easy to say. And I was off.