Samomatic

Often regarded as the most sacred of the “Five Sacred Mountains”, Mount Tai symbolizes sunrise & birth throughout China.

Our path up involved a total of 7,200 steps with 11 gates, 14 archways, 14 kiosks, and 4 pavilions along the way.

Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years and has been visited by many emperors at the time.

We entered through the Sun Gates to begin our ascent up the mountain.

Since it is in the middle of winter, workers manually tie colored yarn to the trees in preparation for Chinese New Year.

Ancient tree in the courtyard that has seen many turmoils over the years.

At the base of the mountain where pilgrims can purchase incense and walking sticks.

One of the temples along the way. Each temple has a key strength, whether it be for exams, health, wealth, or luck, that the visitors can ask for favors.


Off the beaten track we found a vast area with poems carved onto boulders and on the riverbed.

How has this come to be? An underwater well which has trickled and frozen over the winter?

It is not a difficult climb, it just has a lot of stairs!

Advantages of winter, we were walking along the riverbed to get a closer look at the frozen waterfall.

Our view at Midway Gate to Heaven while eating hand-made noodles in beef broth. Far off is First Gate to Heaven, the final checkpoint at the peak.

Past the mid-point we began the toughest part of the journey – the Eighteen Bends with 1630 steps covering almost 400 meters in vertical distance.

Looking down. We were glad there was no snow or ice to make the steep path even more treacherous.

Yet as we were gasping for breath these two workers were dashing down the mountain while carrying 2 mattresses between them!

Almost there! At this point I was really hungry and ate an entire bag of Wasabi peas in one go.

Finally made it to the top before sunset! The restaurants are busy preparing for supper.

We settled for a guest house near the weather observation tower, there is no running water in any of the buildings.

Group photo at sunrise. It was about -15degC, changing lens was becoming a challenge.

The Eastern side of the mountain to catch the first glimpse of the sunrise.

The mountain range stretching ahead.


At the Jade Emperor Peak [玉皇頂] of the mountain, 1545 metres (5069 ft) tall. Many people lock their wishes near the sky.

After breakfast we stumbled upon a celebration, to this day I still don’t know what it is for.

Men & women in traditional gowns performing their dance routine despite the cold weather.



A view of the path we had travelled along yesterday.

Continuing in our brief stay in Jinan, we visited one of the most famous natural springs within the city.

A wide promenade surrounds the lakes and provides for area to stroll and exercise.

Sunset from the arched bridge. After that the temperature cooled down drastically.

Walk along the ‘Tasty’ Avenue, a narrow street filled with food vendors preparing various specialities.

In the morning we take the express train to Tai Shan City. Grabbed this shot as we were about to board the train.

Getting off the train. Paddy is scrambling to find the bus terminal while I just follow along and snap photos of the local vendors. Here they sell baked sweet potatoes.

Roasted chestnuts!

Tuk-tuk driver laughing at us as we wander around the train station.

Woman preparing green onion pancakes, a local staple for breakfast, from the back of her bicycle.

Finally we arrived at the foot of Tai Shan, preparing for the ascent!

I hope you enjoyed last week’s April Fools on the details of D-SLR images :)
This week I am going back to January, on a trip with Paddy and his wife, Maggie, to the Eastern Shandong region in China.

We flew from Hong Kong directly to Qingdao, a major city in eastern Shandong province. From above the city is packed with construction, high-rise residential units, and industrial complexes.

We took a shuttle bus from the airport to the city centre where we lined up for train tickets. There was a long line-up at the ticket booth and it took us a while to realize that people were preparing for their annual Chinese New Year trip back to their home towns. But inside the newly built train station it was not busy at all.

Vendors that offers everything outside of the train station.

We took the ‘Harmony’ (express) trains to Jinan, a major interchange of 2 major rail-lines and also a city heavily developed in the high-tech industries.

We followed the guidebooks and stayed at a hotel near a local quiet park, in the morning people gather for morning exercise and stretches.

On the express way on the outskirts of the city where construction cranes fill the skyline, a common theme in Chinese Cities.

At the Thousand Buddha Mountain, rows of lanterns have been strung up for the Chinese New Year Celebrations.

Inside the Myriad Buddha Cave (Wanfo Dong), a 500m long cave with around 28 000 Buddhist images in various forms.

The 28m long lying Buddha, the largest statue in the cave.


Climbing towards the peak are temples for different Buddha.

View from the top of the mountain overlooking Jinan. See the scale of the buildings to the Giant Buddha!

Walking along the streets, vegetable vendors keep their goods under blankets to prevent them freezing.

Doing good deeds in the New Year – in this case setting fish free. I think they just go catch them again downstream though…

Modern Technology is quite impressive. It is amazing to think that consumer cameras nowadays can have 16-20MP resolutions. To illustrate the resolving power of a modern DSLR I have taken a photo from my recent trip to Havana, Cuba. Starting with this image of 3 classic cars.

Focusing on the front tip of the bumper. Photo was taken with Pentax K20D and DA 18-250mm.

Zooming in on the fortress, which is across the bay.

Zeroing in the lighthouse.

After some filtering to extract the final details, you can make out the individual people on the lighthouse!

EDIT: APRIL FOOLS :)