If you speak to a person in the south, they will claim 'a myriad of mountains, rivers, and geniuses'. I climbed one of these myriads of mountains last week, a mountain that overlooks Guangzhou called Baiyuanshan (White Cloud Mountain). It took me two hours to reach the top from the midway point, walking on a widely paved two lane road. I caught the top of the mountain just in time to view part of the sunset (see the first two pictures on the right) and then descend all the way down the mountain in the dark, getting bitten all the way. The view from the top was amazing, the jury is still out, though, on if it was worth all the mosquito bites.
But if you ask someone in Shandong province they will smugly say that Shandong has 'one mountain, one river, and one saint.' Needlessly implying that they have the last word in China on each: Taishan, the Yellow River, and Confucius.
Taishan is one of the most revered peaks in Chinese consciousness.
The story of Taishan's creation dates back to the creation myth of the earth itself, and because of this, Taishan is thoroughly intertwined in Chinese history. At the beginning of time, when all was in chaos and heaven and earth were swirling all together Pan Gu was born. He promptly set about separating the earth from the heavens and with each day that passed he grew taller and taller, the sky grew higher and higher and the ground grew thicker and thicker. Finally after 18,000 years the two were finally separated and Pan Gu died of exhaustion. His body disintegrated and his eyes became the sun and moon, his blood filled the land and transformed into rivers, his sweat fell as rain 
and his head and limbs became the Taoists 5 most sacred peaks. Taishan formed from Pan Gu's head.Whether because it formed from Pan Gu's head or because it is situated in the east, which is representative of spring and birth in the Chinese culture, Taishan is the most revered of peaks in Taoism, but is also revered in Buddhism and Confucianism as well. Further, it is believed that heaven would not allow an unworthy ruler to ascend to the summit of the mountain, so a successful climb denoted divine approval. In China's 3,000 years of history many emperors and rulers have attempted to climb the mountain adding to its rich historical legacy. 5 emperors were successful in their climbs, and during the Qing dynasty 17th century to 1911, hundreds of thousands have climbed the 1545 meters to the top. But these numbers pale in its modern popularity, on the May long-weekend in 2006, it is said 190,000 people climbed the mountains 6,666 steps (see third picture on right).
In the paths of all who came before me, I too set out on this gruelling climb, fortunate enough to meet up with several American's and their English speaking host. Heidi and Nora were both middle school teachers visiting a school in Jining. They were in China for just under a month and were sadly leaving the next day for Beijing. I must say the climb was much more enjoyable because I climbed with them (see group picture on the right, we were at the start of the climb).
The day began at the Dai Temple, where many emperors stayed
prior to their pilgrimage. Then we proceeded to the mountain, where we slowly set out on our climb. We reached the top about two hours later, while highly commercialized at the top (there is even a hotel) we walked around briefly before electing to eat dinner. We greatly enjoyed the cable car ride down the mountain, though the trip would not have been nearly as fulfilling if we had elected to take the cable car up. Take a look at the man carrying boxes down the mountain, these men get paid 10 yuan per trip! I can only imagine!
In the evening I wandered the local night market with a junior named Phoebe, who was majoring in English at the Tai'an Agricultural University. I had some sort of fish on a stick, as well as kettle corn. Both were surprisingly good. I was amazed at the different wares for sale, Phoebe said that Night Markets are common throughout many Chinese cities. Think of them as farmers markets taking place at night and selling everything from books, to pots and pans, food, electrical lights, shoes, and everything else in between. There was even a man with a monkey performing tricks!
The next morning I took the 9:13 train out of town. I was greatly impressed with the Chinese peoples' ability to Que, a large improvement from my stay in Beijing 2 years ago. However, when the train doors did not line up correctly with the pre-formed rows waiting on the platform all hope was lost and people went running and crowded the doors.
While I don't have any stories yet for the One River, I do however have many for the One Saint, but I will leave those for my next post. As well as a post on Chinese lifestyle and Chinese hospitality. More in good time, tomorrow looks like it will be a down day in the morning, so I will try as I know that the blog went dry for most of the week.
Love to all back in the states. Dad, Mom, Nate, love you all!
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