Climbing China's Tai Shan_world

Climbing China's Tai Shan

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China has five sacred Taoist mountains. Throughout history, these mountains have been revered as holy places; they have been worshiped, visited, built upon, painted, written about, populated. They are not lofty as mountains go, or part of massive ranges, one peak among dozens. Generally they form isolated peaks or small mountainous regions, rising out of the surrounding plains or valleys, which in ancient times and clear skies would have been major landmarks visible from far off. Depending on their location, they are forested or bare rock, swirled in fog or rising above the surrounding dominant cloud cover. They have for a very long time been laced with trails for monks and pilgrims to ascend to the temples that were laboriously carved onto the tops or sheer cliffs. On the lower slopes they were farmed and grazed, with small villages supplying goods to the temples above. They were once wild places full of animals, even with the small population of monks in attendance; now they are favorite and heavily used tourist areas, crowded with people, usually not pilgrims, developed in the Chinese fashion into Travel Places, complete with the amenities Chinese travelers wantrestaurants, Photo Op spots, famous poems carved on nearby boulders, cute gates and pagodas, benches and flag-stone paved trails, and the things that come with ittrinket sellers, heaps of litter, foul toilets, expensive entrance tickets, jostling crowds, and not an animal alive.

Tai Shan is the most famous of the Taoist mountains. Located in north-central Shangdong province, it is within eight hours by train west of the famous coastal city of Qingdao, home of German beer in China, and two hours by train north of Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius (whose family name should be spelled Kong). It is only 1524 meters high (a little over 4500 feet), a small set of mountains with two main peaks sitting on a flat plain, mostly ancient fractured and metamorphosed sandstone, dry and exposed, with a light covering of mixed leaf forest. There is a city, Tai\'An, at its foot, literally; our hotel was a stone\'s throw from the end of the city street and the start of the mountain access road, and the number 3 bus took us straight up there from the train station. As with most Chinese Scenic Spots, it is presented by means of a grand entrance, in this case a large circle of concrete where the buses stop, with a procession of carved columns on either side leading up to a staircase, framing the mountain in the background. Here you stand next to the sign announcing that Tai Shan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for the obligatory travel photo: me in front of the mountain, or waterfall, or gate, or temple, or wherever I go. Every Chinese must have albums full of pictures of themselves in front of every place they\'ve visited, no photos of the place itself.

We could practically spit from our hotel room window onto the grand concrete concourse. Immediately behind it was the ticket window of course; there is no place in China you can go that is remotely interesting without buying a ticket, in this case a very expensive one at over $10.00 US! Yes, the ticket is big and pretty, printed with full colors and worthy of a souvenir album, but still, it was expensive. And the ticket did not include the bus ride up to the end of the road, about halfway up the mountain, a good two hours\' hike from the bottom, we were told. That was another $2.00. This was now practically the price of our hotel room, and definitely the price of a week\'s worth of food; being a pilgrim is not for the poor. First, we wandered around a bit, getting oriented, at the lowest slopes where a stream falls down into a small reservoir surrounded by a pleasant conifer forest. Finally we bit the bullet and got on the bus, as I tried to convince Josh that he was not going to climb from here to that peak way up there, which was a lot farther than it looked, either today starting at 12:30 or ever. Let\'s take the bus, see where it gets us, and start from there. I was also hungry and we had had no breakfast.

We crowded onto the mini-bus with lots of other people, most clutching bags of bottled water, boiled ears of corn (the street food of the region), and other provisions. The ride up was short, maybe twenty minutes, and quite scenic as we twisted around hairpin turns climbing steeply, with grand views of the minor peaks, mostly bare rock outcroppings, at every turn. It was indeed picturesque, and there were no major villages or other structures on the slopes. Soon we reached the end of the road, and a huge number of mini-buses parked in the lot, waiting to load up with passengers for the ride back down. A short paved path led up past at least ten restaurants and a hotel, and on to a temple a bit above us. Now there were thick crowds of people, from old couples to university students with nice-looking rucksacks. I pleaded with Josh to get a bite to eat before we went any farther, and we found a noodle shop among the eateries, where we each had a bowl of freshly-pulled noodles with beef stock for the outrageous price of 5 yuan (it would have been 3 down below). Well, this was up on the mountain in a tourist area. When we were finished, we sort of followed the crowds, and noticed they were turning up onto another broad paved path under the trees. Ok, let\'s follow them.

"Hiking" in China is a foreign concept; Chinese people "walk", no matter how steep the route, no matter how far it is, how broken the path, or how far from city pavement. They don\'t carry daypacks, or provision themselves against dire eventualities. They don\'t wear special hiking boots, or all-weather gear. They\'re just as likely to start down a path with a business suit on, or wearing high-heels, carrying a purse and of course their mobile [phone]. They can always buy bottled water and snacks along the wayin this case watermelon, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, or peaches. In fact, they always look like they\'re taking a Sunday walk in the park, not "hiking". There is no solitude, no quiet reflection on flowers or nature, no waiting for local birds. You chat with your inevitable crowd of friends or family in a loud voice, eat constantly as you walk, throwing the waste over your shoulder, take pictures at every boulder decorated with a few characters of poetry, and cavort on the rocks, river bank or wherever you are. That is, you act as if you are at Disneyland, and this whole show has been created for your amusement, so cute, so just-right!

We started up the path, and I instantly realized that this was going to be a Hike, no matter how the locals were taking it. I could see the peak towering nearly straight above me, over a small ridge, and I quickly spied a set of stairs, far above my head, leading to a gap near the summit, up which ant-sized people were moving slowly. I turned to Josh. "Well, I will try, but I won\'t guarantee anything," I said. What did I care if I made it or not? Josh dallied a bit, and I started off slowly, on my own tortoise-paced rhythm I figured would sustain me most of the way up such a climb. I have enough hiking experience to know you must pace yourself, set a pace you can maintain for the long haul. I knew Josh would catch up in no time and pass me quickly, and I didn\'t want to hold him up too much. So I just put my head down and started walking, noticing the trees along the path, trying to ignore the people. Luckily it wasn\'t too bright or hot. I had a small bottle of water and knew I\'d better conserve it yet at the same time keep hydrated. It was about 1:30 pm.

The path started gently enough, climbing steadily through the forest, along a slope up to where a stream fell down a small waterfall. There were a few sets of stairs, but nothing major. I could feel the

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