Taishan (Tai Mountain)

This gigantic mountain took us five hours to climb..the last of which was in a rainstorm in the dark. 7,000 steps... but it was quite worth it...Confucius climbed it and so did Mao Tse Tung. The myth is that if you climbed to the top of the mountain, you will live to be one hundred years old. So I guess we shall see. At the top of the mountain,you are so highly elevated that you are physically above the clouds... quite an experience. We woke up at 4 in the morning to catch the sunrise. It was quite a disappointing experience. Not only did the sun not come out, we share what we thought would be a quiet peaceful morning on the mountain with a couple thousand loud Chinese tourists. Overall, it was an amazing experience because it was so physically challenging. To have done it was just one of the greatest experiences ever.

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