Day trip to Tai Shan

Since students have testing in our school, we got Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning off last week (back to work Saturday afternoon for a 6.5 work week)

On Thursday I decided to take a trip to a famous mountain that is about an hour away by train.

I decided to wait and buy my tickets at the train station--which was a bad call on my part--I waited forever. 

This couple in front of me was adorable. Here, guys ALWAYS carry their woman's purse. I wonder if they are just that whipped or if it is some kind of statement (she's mine!) 

That's supposed to be a "line"--this is pretty typical in China--lines are distant and foreign 

The slow train that I was on went to Shenzhen! Which has to be about a 30 hour ride

There are sleeper seats (similar to my trip to Qingdao) but many people sit in the main cabin--which has to be so uncomfortable for people traveling 10+ hours

After an hour train and a super enthusiastic cab driver I made it to Mount Tai. Mount Tai is one of the "Five Great Mountains" in China and has over 3000 years of history (70+ Emperors have visited it and many famous people have walked to the top)

"Critical Stone Lot"...??

Chinese people can sleep anywhere

A scholar tree planted during an early dynasty--all together four were planted--only one is still living. 

After about 10 minutes I was already short of breath...

Blessings 

Half way!

I didnt realize there was an "in-bounds"

A view of the top from half way up! The rock seemed to sparkle in the sun 

The typical food that is at snack shops always include tomatoes and cucumber--I was so thirsty that was all I could stomach 

A sign in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean

These kids walked up with me almost the entire time. After I took one picture i had to take about 50--some people acted as if they had never seen a white person before. 

They wanted one with my sunglasses on (they said it made me look famous...ha)

2 1/2 hours later...the last stretch--pretty much one huge stair master workout 

At the top there was more important sights to see and a little village. There are two hotels at the top but their prices were unreal

UNESCO heritage site

Gorgeous view!

This platform is for viewing the sunrise--maybe if i come back another year and have some friends to go with i will come back and see the sunrise

One of my coworkers was telling me he traveled all the way to the mountain and got there in time to watch the sunrise...but was on the wrong side of the mountain--haha

I couldnt walk anymore, so I took the chairlift down. It stopped about half way then I had to take a bus, the find a taxi to the train station. 

Overall it was an exhausting day but I am glad that I went to go see it--even though it was by myself. It turned out for the best though-I had a lot of time to think and reflect on things. 

On the way home taking the slow train home was extremely frustrating--I was the only foreign person in there and nothing was clearly labeled--they just kept yelling things 

The next day I had a hard time walking!