48 Hours of Epicness (21 and 22 June)

At 2AM we were awoken by the train maiden and arrived in Tai'an's Tai Shan station. We sat around for a few hours, waiting for the sun to rise, so we could go and find our hostel. While in the train station, we witnessed one of the creepiest scenes I've ever seen. It probably won't sound as creepy, but I'll try to describe it...

A Chinese neon sign flickers green and red. An old hunchback woman walks slowly through the aisles, wheeling a bag - an unnerving noise. She stopped at the window right in front of us. Clutching the window bars with an iron grip, she slowly looks around at us from under her arm, green and red illuminating her dishevelled face. Nightmares. So was Grandma Cricket.

We then went to the hostel, an old rundown family joint with extremely friendly ownders and chihuahua puppies. After settling in, we had some bread and weirdly delicious soup from an overly enthusiastic vendor. We explored a little, and then I went out to the food market near us. Five hundred pictures in less than a block.

I went back, napped, then we went to the Dai Temple - an expansive ad gorgeous area. While there, I met a kid who had met Tim when he was in Tai'an. Small world.

Next came dumplings, fried chicken, fried peppers, etc. Then a nap. Why all the napping? We decided to (and did) climb from the Dai Temple to the highest peak of Tai Shan - the Jade Emperor Temple. The Dai Temple to the base was an inclined mile. The base to the Jade Emperor Temple was 7,200 steps, well over 5,500 feet. And then we walked all the way back (on the way down, I slipped and bruised my tail bone). Oy. The climb was excruciating, but well worth it. From the top, I enjoyed the sunrise (which couldn't be seen through the mist) with the Chinese pilgrims who came to climb one of the five sacred mountains. In the eight + hours that we were walking, we saw one other white person. The Chinese were so surprised to see us - apparently it's not big for Western tourists to do this at night - that we got in at least sixty different photographs.

Once back at the hostel, we grabbed some food and went to sleep finally. Then we grabbed more food, and waited for our train to Nanjing.

As we walked down the aisle of our train compartment, I couldn't help but laugh. They had no sleeper seats left, so we had to book the sitting car - which is very rare for tourists. The ENTIRE compartment was in awe - staring and repositioning to see the laowei (foreigners). Our seats were all the way at the end of the compartment, so we literally were stared at by every waking person. People tried talking to us, but we couldn't understand, which drew heaps of laughter.  One vendor made fun of me for writing, making gibberish noises. He then announced something to the train and everyone laughed. (Have you ever been laughed at by an entire train car of people?) When Karen and Michael started playing cards, they acquired an audience (including the train attendant).

 

A gate on Tai Shan 

PS - Bare Necessities