skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Posted On Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at
at
1:33 AM
by Alvin
登泰山而小天下 ! Tai Shan had been the mountain which we looked forward to climbing for a long time - grand, majestic, steeped in history and tough ! We arrived in the city of Tai An (泰安) which was nestled at the foot of and dwarfed by, Tai Shan, the day before the climb and found the city buzzling and modern. We ventured into the temple (岱廟) where past emperors paid tributes to Tai Shan in elaborate ceremonies and the atmosphere in the temple was very special and solemn as the ground was planted with hundreds of ancient cypress trees (松柏), some dating back to 2,000 years ! However much we had prepared ourselves, the climb up Tai Shan was definitely one of the toughest mountain work-outs we had experienced in China ! Basically 4 hours of solid cardio-exercises up more than 10,000 steep steps. We were rewarded with views of some magnificent stone carvings, neat and cute rest stops and cafes along the way, as well as the daunting vista of the famous 18 Turns (十八盤) and finally a complete birds' eye view at the very top - 玉皇頂. Although Tai Shan stood only at about 1,700 meters, the mountain air at the top was crisp and cool; we enjoyed our picnic lunch before trekking back down from 玉皇頂 and reached Tai An at 4P.M. to the welcome sight of the public bus waiting for us to take up back to enjoy a bottle of the famed Tai Shan Original Brew - best consumed fresh before the 7-days expiry period (泰山原漿啤酒), what a day !
登泰山而小天下 ! Tai Shan had been the mountain which we looked forward to climbing for a long time - grand, majestic, steeped in history and tough ! We arrived in the city of Tai An (泰安) which was nestled at the foot of and dwarfed by, Tai Shan, the day before the climb and found the city buzzling and modern. We ventured into the temple (岱廟) where past emperors paid tributes to Tai Shan in elaborate ceremonies and the atmosphere in the temple was very special and solemn as the ground was planted with hundreds of ancient cypress trees (松柏), some dating back to 2,000 years ! However much we had prepared ourselves, the climb up Tai Shan was definitely one of the toughest mountain work-outs we had experienced in China ! Basically 4 hours of solid cardio-exercises up more than 10,000 steep steps. We were rewarded with views of some magnificent stone carvings, neat and cute rest stops and cafes along the way, as well as the daunting vista of the famous 18 Turns (十八盤) and finally a complete birds' eye view at the very top - 玉皇頂. Although Tai Shan stood only at about 1,700 meters, the mountain air at the top was crisp and cool; we enjoyed our picnic lunch before trekking back down from 玉皇頂 and reached Tai An at 4P.M. to the welcome sight of the public bus waiting for us to take up back to enjoy a bottle of the famed Tai Shan Original Brew - best consumed fresh before the 7-days expiry period (泰山原漿啤酒), what a day !
