China: On Climbing a mountain

"Err ... it sure is a great wall"

President Nixon displaying his flair for rhetoric on a state visit to the Great Wall of China, 1972

CHINA: ON CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN

Having exhausted most of the possibilities in Beijing, I decided to set myself a bit of a challenge, and climb up a mountain. (I was going to tell you the story of Lucy and myself on a rickshaw but I think I'll save it till I get back).

Tai Shan, is pretty tiny as mountains go - at 1545 metres it's only around 20% of the height of Mount Everest. Nevertheless, it was quite exciting going up. The ascent was reasonably straightforward, although it did get a little bit gruelling at times.

The mountain periodically gets eveloped by mist. At one point I was looking down at the lights of the nearby town, which is about 5 kilometres away, and mist started swirling around and within thirty seconds I couldn't see a bloody thing - visibility became less than 100 metres. I pressed on and reached the mountain plateau.

I kept going onto the summit, and finally reached it at about 10.30 on the 29th. What was rather galling is that there is a small stone temple there, so not only has it clearly been done several times before, but by people carrying heavy stones.

It wasn't until this point that I realised how stupid I had been, as I had to begin the descent in darkness. And I can tell you it was pretty scary.

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I must also mention in passing one of the more bizarre products I have seen advertised here. The film Titanic is hugely popular in China, and they have developed an inflatable water slide based on it.

I wonder what exactly they were thinking? And how exactly will they advertise it?

"Hey kids! Remember the scene in Titanic where the ship breaks in half? The passengers slide screaming into the icy waters for their inevitable slow drowning. Well, why not relive the fun and excitement with your very own Titanic water slide!"

I must stress this is a genuine product.

Anyway, all the best

Michael