Mt. Tai

We have been in China one week now. The time is going fast. In the last few days we actually fit in a week-end trip to Mount Tai, for the Mountain Climbing Festival. Mt. Tai is the most holy mountain in China. All of the past Emperors have made a trip to the top of Mt. Tai to worship and gain inspiration. Our waiban (facilitator/boss), Toby, set up the trip for all the Foreign Teachers and Students. We spent the night in the city of Tai’an, which was at the foot of the mountain. A two hour bus ride took us to our destination. It was fun to see the surrounding country side, and the time went fast. We arrived at our destination in the early afternoon, and had the rest of the day free.

     Our friends, the Golds went with us on a walk around the city. We found a little store, somewhat like a 7-11, where they sold Chocolate Magnum Ice Cream Bars. It was a great treat for a hot and humid day. We remembered eating Magnum Bars in Tanzania when we went on our safari.

We were so fortunate to come across the Dai Temple complex. We were walking through a park, when we saw the entrance to the temple. We used our very minimal Chinese speaking skills, and got a reduced entrance fee because we were teachers. The temple complex was reminiscent of the Forbidden Temple area. There were lots of stone tablets with Chinese writing, standing on the backs of turtles.

Also prominent, were old trees that were surrounded by protection barriers and plaques noting their age and significance. This spoke to us of the reverence that the Chinese people have for the elderly. We enjoyed the Bonsai gardens. There were some very, very old Bonsai trees.  A geological museum was housed in the gardens, where we learned about the geological history of Mt. Tai. We felt very fortunate to come across this temple complex. It was well tended, and very relaxing. The organizers of our trip didn’t even know about it. Lucky us!!!

That evening, we were taken to a show that depicted some of the History of China. It was a magnificent production on the mountainside. There were sets of huge movable metal steps on which the scenery was projected. I know, hard to imagine. The costuming was magnificent. Some of the scenes involved horses and riders charging by dressed in Ancient Chinese armor. It was pretty impressive! 

We’ve found that we like the Chinese food. We’ve gotten really good with chop-sticks. I’m really surprised at this, because I’ve never been good at it in the past, and I can do just fine now. The food seems to agree with us as well. They eat a lot of vegetables. Almost no dairy products though. We’ve had broccoli, and cooked lettuce, lots of peppers, and something that looks like very skinny string beans. It all tastes great! We’ve had chicken, beef, pork and shrimp dishes, and they’re all really good. This is such a surprise to us. We were sure that it would be really hard to find food that we liked here in China. Since they’re not much into dairy products here, it was hard to find milk. Here’s a picture of the largest container of milk that we could find. It tastes pretty good – but it’s in a one-cup plastic bag!
Okay, back to our trip info: On Monday morning, we walked to the location where the mountain climbing competition started. We didn’t have a clue as to the extent of this festival. We were all given marathon bibs as we left the hotel. This should have given us a clue. The number on my bib was 7502. There were at least that many participants that climbed the mountain that day. We all met on a big field and waited about an hour for the officials to come. The great majority of the people there were dressed in running clothes and were stretching out and jogging in place or around the perimeter.

It was so funny . . . . Lots of young Chinese men came up to the younger gals in our group and wanted their pictures taken with them. These were complete strangers. Our picture (as a group) was taken many, many times by all kinds of people. One young lady though, as it turned out, was a journalist for the “China Daily” newspaper. On the internet for September 7, in the “China Daily", our picture can be seen. Pretty Cool!! I guess they were impressed that foreigners would come to climb their mountain. The competition was finally initiated by the shooting of guns, and the release of thousands of balloons, a hundred or so pigeons. It was exciting. There were lots of well-wishers waving at us all as we began the race. Many cameras were clicking, and we almost felt like celebrities.
We can’t say that we actually climbed it. We walked the first mile, from the meeting place. There was a slight incline, and because it was such a warm, humid day, it gave us a little bit of exercise, but not too much. From there, we rode the bus to the mid-point of the climb up the mountain. At this location, we took a cable car ride up to the 9/10 of the climb point.

All of the surrounding vegetation was emerald green. It was so pretty! The cable ride was fun, and it would have been an extremely beautiful view, except that there was haze all around. We don’t know if it was because of the typhoon, or smog, or fog. (?) Our view was almost completely obstructed. This was a disappointment.

We climbed the last small distance, maybe a half mile or so. It wasn’t too taxing, but it was all in stairs, and that made it somewhat more difficult than if it was just an up-hill path. The top of the mountain was packed with participants. The top portion was a rock wall-enclosed area, which had a very small entrance. I was amazed at the speed at which so many runners made it to the top! At the top, there was an alter surrounded with hundreds and hundreds of “love locks”.

These are pad-locks that couples who are in love, hook onto chains that surround the alter. Most of the padlocks were very old and rusty. The couples commit to each-other by locking it, and throwing away the keys, signifying that their love would never be broken. There was a merchant there, selling padlocks. The big ones, which we would have wanted, were being sold for RMB 100 which is around $15. We’ll stick to the symbolism of our wedding rings and the covenants we made in the temple.