Tai'an is south of Jinan
Yesterday I went with the other Foreign English teachers, from Always School, to the top of Mount Tai, a few miles south of Jinan. We got there in an hour and half then took a bus half-way up the mountain. From there we took a beautiful cable car to the top and walked a bit further on to a restaurant/hotel where we had a buffet. I tried out a new paper-like food stuff which I discovered to be made from beancurd, and my table as deep in conversation about the second world war and whether America knew about earl Harbour before it happened or not.
In the old days it was believed that since the sun rose from the East, it must have risen from on top of Mount Tai. Mount Tai is one of the Five Sacred mountains of China and as such had its fair number of emperors grace its paths (including other famous figures such as George W. Bush - at least that's according to the tourist photograph advertisements that were found at one location of the mountain). The emperors themselves didn't have to scale the mountain of course. Instead they were carried on rickshaws by their servants. There were eight designated spots along the path up to the mountain in which the emperor was asked by his servants if he needed a rest from the taxing job of sitting on a plush, velvet cushion and eating grapes. If the emperor decided that it was all a little too much for him he would reply that yes, indeed he did wish to have a break. Then and only then could his servants also rest, if the emperor needed no such break then the servants would have to continue to climb the steep path of the mountain.
The weather at the top of the mountain was beautiful. I felt a real sense of happiness up there. I was surrounded by centuries of history, all around me were people from many different cultures, and I felt relaxed in the company of the other foreign teachers. It was also nice having a tour guide/leader take charge of the trip, so that I didn't have to think about where to go or what to do.
After our meal we went back down to the cable car area. Some of us took the cable car back down to the mid-point whilst others walked down the rest of the way. I was quite undecided over which to do. My knees were hurting quite a bit already, but at the same time I wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of the mountain, and I wanted to spend more time with the other teachers on the trip. I decided to walk down, but I adopted a penguin-waddle to prevent myself doing too much damage to my knees.
About half-way down I saw an old Chinese man sitting at the entrance of some cave. He had thin shoulder-length silver hair and a silver goatee. I thought he looked very interesting, so I wanted to take a picture with him. As I approached slowly, so that he wouldn't think I was pouncing on him, he began making strange gestures. I didn't quite understand, but I went in for the photo anyway. Then, he started pulling at my arms and trying to get me to sit on his lap. 'What is this?' I thought. I got my photo and ran away. You can see the photo above and actually, I've just noticed where the man's eyes are. Bad man. Bad, bad man.
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