Tai'an - China

Our first experience of traveling by hard seat on a train for our 7 hour trip from Beijing to Tai'an, packed with some food and the only Westeners. The seats were surprising padded and the train air conditioned, so it was a pleasant trip. Our Chinese woman companion offered us boiled eggs however wouldn't take anything from us. Ian and Jason entertained the son for a while with an annoying musical spinning thing that they bought from the attendant, who sold everything from food, books, games and socks (giving everyone a demonstration that they will not rip, burn or anything else - it was like one of those annoying television ads that go on forever). Jacque had pre-booked our accommodation in a fancy hotel, at 260 RMB - 16 pounds a night for a room. So we were quite pleased. We had a view of THE MOUNTAIN, which is why we came here. To walk up Mount Tai Shan. The Mountain of the Gods where many make pilgrimage to China's most sacred mountain, where heaven and earth is linked. This is the highest point in eastern China, 1545m above sea level. There was 6660 stone steps. There were temples and calligraphy in the stone. It took two and a half hours to walk from the hotel to the top. It was tough as it was mostly steps, and a third of it was really steep steps so you would only walk for about eight and then have to stop. It brought back bad trekking memories of Peru and me crying on my second day. Bless Ian, as he hung back to encourage me. He was probably getting my not impressed and can't talk look. Isn't it strange that when you finally get to the top and rest alittle that you forget the tortore that your body had just been through! We took the cable car down part of the way, and then walked the last hour. Whole body aching by this time, it still took much concentration to walk down the steps. We took a rest day the following day. Much needed! We stumbled across a fantastic resturant that we went to every night! This was the best place for dumplings, and we had loads. The thing was that we had difficulty ordering, even though the menu was in English because we didn't know how to order the quantity. Therefore one night we ended up with three huge plates of dumplings with different fillings, and decided to just have this and beers. Lov'n the food! We also went to a Jazz Club where the people were really friendly, once again wanted to talk with us and practice their English. There was one student that could write better English than he spoke, so he had Jacque at the bar communicating with a pen and paper. We took a local bus to a town an hour away called Qufu. It is the legendary birthplace of Confucius, China's most infuential philospher, whose impact continues to influence education, politics and thought. Born in 551 BC it was only after his death in 479 BC that his ideas gained prominence. "Confucious says..." We had a look around his Temple and Mansion. The Mansion was very commericilised, with lots of stalls trying to sell things. We arranged for an overnight hard train sleeper for the next part of our journey. And this is what we continued to do for most of our trips. The hard sleeper consists of 6 bunks with no door, so we shared with Chinese people. We stopped buying so much food to take onto the train, knowing that we can buy it cheap on there. We would arrive in the next city the following morning, usually having already pre-arranged the accommodation and having an idea of what we wanted to see. Next.....Shanghai