After staying in Beijing, it was time to go to Shanghai.
I needed a quick stopover because it was just too far in one
shot. So I decided to take the train to Shanghai and stop
halfway at Taishan for a day to break up the trip and climb
a mountain. Supposedly it was famous so I said why not. The
train pulls into the city at 10pm and I again have no where
to stay and it is late and I am tired. I started to walk around
the city to look for a hotel but I couldn't find anything
reasonable. Something was strange though. There were so many
chinese tourists walking somewhere. I eventually followed
them to see what all the excitement was about. As it turns
out, they are all climbing the mountain to reach it by sunrise.
What a crazy idea.
I later found out it is the thing to do. So having no luck
with hotels, I decided I had better join them. And maybe because
of the dark I could avoid any stupid entry fees. Of course
the first obstacle was to find if the mountain had a wall
around it. Of course it did. And the second.. yep, it has
a paved path and road all the way up so high heel Chinese
tourists could get up. Arrrrgg. Somethings never change. Anyway,
I scampered up the mountain and made it to the top by about
4:30 am. I relaxed a little and watched the sunrise. Nothing
special. It sure drew a crowd though. Everyone was cheering
so I guess it was worth it.
-steve
