Where In The World Is Evan?

Either I’m in much better physical shape than I thought–and visual observation might suggest–or the staff writers for Lonely Planet are fat, lazy slobs. What was pitched as a “minimum 8 hour return climb”, that “necessitates” a stay at an expensive hotel 2 hours from the top, turned out to be something quite different.

Planning to climb at night seemed like a brilliant move to avoid the crippling summer heat. Whilst it did achieved this aim, it did nothing for the intense humidity. After one hour of climbing by moonlight (I managed the whole climb without using my torch) I found myself sweating so badly that I was forced to climb bare-chested (for a man this is quite acceptable in China, surprisingly).

After 2.5 hours of solid unwavering stair climbing I reached a guesthouse where I decided to rest for a scheduled 5 minute break. Upon my arrival several men ran out insisting that I stay in their hotel. After telling them that I was continuing to the top they announced that I had already reached the top. Consulting my map this turned out to be true! I was rather annoyed at this, as it was only 10:15 pm and the sun wasn’t to rise till around 4:30 am.

It took another 45 minutes of staggering around in the dark, and intense mist, to find the Taoist temple at the actual summit of the mountain. The mist shrouding the mountain, however, was so thick that torches were rendered useless–they provided no more than half a meter of illumination, which is what you got from the moonlight. When I did find it, however, there were two PLA soldiers sleeping on the bare rock at the foot of the entrance. They woke upon my arrival and invited me, in reasonable English, to join them for the night. As I had nothing better to do, or anywhere else to be for 5 and a half hours, I said yes. We discussed global politics for a couple of hours then attempted to sleep on the extremly uncomfortable ridged paving stones that surrounded the temple. Having come prepared for a full night of climbing, and not for a camping trip, I found myself rather cold in a pair of shorts.

The view at the top as the sun rose, however, was quite spectacular.

Check out the Tai Shan photo gallery.