Taian and Taishan

We spent the day in Taian hiking on Taishan or Mountain Tai. I love hiking and walking in nature. It always bring me peace and helps me to remember how blessed I am. I can feel closer to my Heavenly Father while I am in the mountains especially, even when there are a lot of people. 

Many of our students and friends had been telling us we needed to go to Taishan and hike up the mountain. They say the best time to go is in the evening. You start hiking at about 9 pm and get to the top about 2 or 3 am. Then you rest until it is almost time for the sun to rise. Then you get up and watch the sunrise. They say it is beautiful. Because of this I had a picture in my head of what it would be like to climb the mountain. I was thinking of our mountains back home in Utah and how I hike in them. I pictured our hikes up Adam's Canyon, walking through trees and brush on a dirt and rock trail.

I was forgetting, however, that China puts stairs on their mountains, so the more people can climb them and it helps keep the environment better. It helps keep the people in the place they want them to be. It keeps extra trails from being made.

It was still a beautiful place and we were still able to see some great views and feel some peace despite the crowds and the smog and clouds. It seemed at times like we were in heaven because we could not see anything below us, so it looked like we were in the air.

You first take a shuttle bus up to a certain point. From there you have a choice. You can do the hike and walk up 8,000 steps to the top or you can take a cable car up to the top to look around. Gary and I decided it would be a better idea for us to take the cable car up and then walk down the 8,000 steps to the bottom. The ride up was fun. Here are a few pictures. There is also one closer to the bottom with our group that took the cable car.

This is us at the top where the cable car and the steps meet. It is not the actual top of the mountain. There is some more hiking you can do once you get to this point. If you look to the side of me, you will see people going down the stairs. This is where you head down to the bottom. The rest of the pictures are of what there is at the top of the mountain. We are able to walk around and see beautiful views, meet new people and enjoy the wonders of nature created by our Heavenly Father and Savior for us.

Notice the name of the street. Heavenly Street. Again sometimes it's like you are in heaven.

This is a tradition. You run your hand along the characters which gives you luck and then put it in your pocket. The Chinese thought it was great that we were willing to do it. They took many pictures of us.

 

These two boys were so funny. Some friends of ours got a picture of the first boy giving me a kiss on the cheek. He was so excited to be able to get his picture with me and give me a kiss. They are friends and though it was such a great thing.

These pictures are from the way down. We decided to take the steps down instead of taking the cable car. We were adventurous. It was 8,000 steps. It was actually pretty easy to go down. The stairs did seem never to end though.

We made it to the bottom in less than an hour. We felt very good. That lasted until the next few mornings for Gary. Then he was really sore. I ended up not being very sore which was nice for me.

We had a wonderful trip to Taishan.