Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Tai Shan
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Tai Shan is a sacred Taoist mountain and the most climbed mountain on earth. It has been climbed by many past emperrors, and when Mao climbed it and watched the sun rise, he exclaimed "the East is red". On top is a huge temple complex, a range of hotels, and a host of vendors selling the same things as the vendors in the city. A cool wind blows, and the air is finally clear enough to see that the sky is blue above. From here, through a haze, the city of Tai An is visible and even it has a pair of cooling towers. The horizon in every direction, just below the top of the mountain is defined by a dark brown line of smog. It covers everything, not only the city, but the mountains on the other side of the mountain as far as you can see. A clear day below the smog never has a clear blue sky, it is always like looking up with sunglasses on.
The staircase up Tai Shan is an impressive raised stone staircase almost the entire way up. The path is on such a grand scale, that it would certainly make the Great Wall slightly less impressive. The way is lined with gates, temples and vendors. The temples have stone or brick walls with dark red plastered walls and colorfully painted tile roofs with clay animals walking out on the upturned corners. Inside are the statues of the gods of Tai Shan, and people make prayers by lighting incense sticks as thick as my arm and locking locks to the incense altar that slowly get covered in ash.
