Sep 16, 2012 - morning on Mount Tai

In the early, early morning had a lucid dream there were five layers (called meiyer, pronounced my-er, as in Oscar Mayer) surrounding the heart. The heart itself was the first layer. Lines represented how close people were; my son reached farthest into the first meiyer, and my husband the longest, from the first to the third. Closest friends were in the second meiyer, and my work, which I do love, was in the third. I'd come to the mountain to know more about my own heart, but never expected to be given a schematic. Waking from that dream...

Sep 15, 2012 - the heart is the emperor

In Chinese medicine the heart, not the mind, governs the body. The heart embodies wisdom, and combines experience, information, and emotion in its function of decision making. In this metaphoric system the heart is the emperor, and its rule is benevolent. Tai Shan is the foremost holy mountain of China. It’s here at the summit where the first emperor declared unification. (That’s the same guy who commissioned the Great Wall, the road system, and the terracotta warriors: Qin Shi Huang.) Confucius also spent time here. Numerous sites and...

Sep 15, 2012 - thank you, Bixia

In a hotel restaurant at the top of Mount Tai. Had trouble finding a room – it’s Saturday, and everything is full. I'd resolved to take the cable car down and find a room in Tai’an but passed one of the pre-eminent Taoist mountain temples on the way. I went in thinking I probably wouldn’t be back, and was drawn to a female figure behind an altar, Bixia maybe, goddess of growth and fertility. Everyone around me was praying for stuff (very practical people, the Chinese) so I thought, what the heck, and prayed for a room. I couldn’t find five...

Sep 14, 2012 - Temple of Cool Rocks and Trees

Though my hotel is by the north entrance to the Dai Temple, I walked around to the south in the footsteps of the emperors who would perform rites before ascending Mount Tai. At the altar south of the temple gate a vendor talked me into buying some incense to make an offering and showed me how to do it. Why not, I thought. I bought a small bundle of stick incense, lit it, and bowed three times, praying for my family. Then I stuck it upright in the ashes of the ceremonial incense holder, which was about the size of a pony cart and festooned...

Sep 14, 2012 - going solo

Starting this morning in the subway I’ve been repeatedly and exclusively photographed by men. I wonder if they realize I’m a middle-aged soccer mom. Here in Tai’an at the Dai Temple several followed me around taking snickity continuous photos. Maybe it’s the hair, but I’d pulled it back in a ponytail today in order to escape attention. When climbing tomorrow I’ll try sunglasses and a floppy hat. This evening I went to eat at the restaurant located at the end of a complex of buildings that together comprise the hotel. The hostess was...

Dec 15, 2009 - Tai'an

Twee busreizen verder zijn we in Tai'an, om de Tai Shan te beklimmen! 's avonds eten we in een restaurant met alleen een chinese kaart..Help! We proberen iets te bestellen en krijgen een grote bak met boullion op tafel wat aan de kook wordt gehouden, vervolgens arriveren er rauwe stukken vlees, paddestoel en hele enge vissen.. We maken ze duidelijk dat we de vissen niet willen! Niet veel later arriveren er twee hele verse vissen in stukjes..en die worden geheel(met kop en staart) in de hete buillon gegooid.. Eet smakelijk! Dinsdag...

Sep 26, 2009 - Stair Mountain - Day 10

We woke up at 7am to ensure some climbing before the temperature increased. We were pleased to find out that the weather was remarkably cooler than the day before. We found square shaped breakfast items resembling croissants (which we had dry without Jam) for some energy for the climb. Blagging half price student tickets we proceeded to climb what we were soon to find out was a million stairs – 8 kilometers in fact! There was officially no climbing or even normal walking. Stairs, stairs and more stairs which got ridiculously step passed...

Sep 25, 2009 - The Not So Fun Day - Day 9

Alfie kindly took us to the train station at 3am to catch our train to Tai’an (the town at the bottom of TaiShan – mountain). It has proven impossible to travel by train in China without complying to the popular chinese custom of eating pot noodle. Water from the taps are not even drunk by the locals due to contamination therefore hot water dispensers are available at every carriage entrance of the train, making tea drinking and pot noodle eating a must. As they say : when in China…… As we have learnt the hard way, upon arrival we decided...

Apr 3, 2008 - Shandong Personalities

Shandong Personality Profile 1 Name: Liu Cong Age: 20ish Occupation: Finance Student at Shandong Agricultural University Favorite Hobbies: Climbing Tai Shan every other Monday and accosting foreigners in order to practice speaking English. Political Views: Would vote for Obama. Thinks Hu Jintao (current Chinese head of state) is doing a much better job than Jiang Zemin (former Chinese head of state). Religious Views: Believes Daoism is a philosophy, not a religion. Favorite Tai Shan Mountain Legend: When babies are born in the vicinity of...

Jun 2, 2006 - Climbing the holy mountain

From Shanghai I headed to Tai'Shan, China's holiest mountain. According to Chinese myth the mountain was formed from the head of Pan Gu who created the earth and those who climb it will live to be 100 years-old it is claimed. I managed (just) to climb the mountain getting up at 5.00am (in an attempt to avoid the worst heat of the day) and when I eventually got to the top, I was so out knackered I felt like I was going die and wouldn't even live to see the next day let alone be 100 years-old. But when I got my breath back the view was...

Oct 23, 2004 - Tai Shan

Thursday (21 October) started pretty early for me with my alarm off at 4.15am as I have to get off the train at Tai'an at 4.40am. I tried to be as quiet as possible as the three old Chinese women sharing my compartment didn't seem best pleased to be sharing with me to start with so I did not want to offend them too much. As it turned out they snored like steam engines so I had hardly slept anyway. Staggered out onto the dark platform and wandered to the exit where there was a frenzy of taxi drivers for very few travellers. One was yelling...

Sep 18, 2002 - Tai'an / Tai Shan / Qufu

We arrived in Tai'An in the wee morning hours of September 15 after taking the overnight train from Beijing. It was our first experience with "hard sleepers" and on the advice of our hotel in Beijing, we had booked 2 hard sleepers with the idea that the boys would climb in with us to sleep. Hard sleepers are the budget option of sleepers and the cars consist of doorless compartments with 6 sleepers stacked 3 deep in each compartment. The sleepers are padded,and are about 6 feet long by 2 feet wide -- adequate but not roomy -- and come...