China Travel Words

Taishan Sunrise Hike

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TaiShan Sunrise

 

Welcome to TaiShan, home of the most famous sunrise in all of China.  It was here that Mao Zedong so famously declared that “the East is Red” so long ago.  Emperors throughout the ages climbed Mount Tai to sacrifice at the temple and watch sunrise from the peak.

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Yea, I dont get it either.  It was nice, but not lifechanging; certainly not one of the world’s most beautiful sunrises.  Check out China’s Huangshan or Sri Lanka’s Adam’s Peak sunrise instead.

Hiking Mount Tai

Even if sunrise at TaiShan wasn’t the most incredible experience, the hike up is still a bit of fun and rewards with pretty nice views over the mountains of Shandong province.

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The climb starts out pretty easy, but sooner than is perhaps comfortable hits its stride in hours of concrete steps.
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Then, they get serious.
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What seems like an eternity of steps later, you finally make it to the aptly named “Heaven Street” just short of the top.
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Near the top, a number of monasteries dot the landscape from heights overlooking the city below.
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And inside the monasteries, a number of monks go about their daily religious routines.
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Once you’ve made it all the way up though, and see the view as an ethereal fog rolls in and out between the mountains, the walk doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
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Click to open panoramic view.

Even if you haven’t been training to be a warrior monk at the Shaolin Temple in Luoyang, the Taishan climb is physically demanding but not impossible – and the incredible views from the top at sunrise make it more than worthwhile.

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