6,366 steps

Good day 😊 

On the weekend, I went hiking with my roommate from Suzhou and my roommate from Friedrichshafen in Tai'an. According to the travel guide, we were promised 6,366 steps and one of the most beautiful sunrises in China. Well, before we left on Friday with the good old night train, we knew that the weather forecast wasn't so great, but we were optimistic 😊 On the way there, we booked the Soft Sleeper, but unfortunately, it was a total disappointment 😔 it was somehow worse than our last Hard Sleeper to Huangshan....

Arriving in Tai'an, we set off for the mountain and started walking in scorching heat, step by step. Unfortunately, the mountain was constantly shrouded in fog, but the temperatures were still not pleasant. The last part was really tough, but unfortunately not easy to see in the pictures (try zooming in on the 3rd picture, the stairs are slightly visible in the middle). We made it and arrived at the top completely soaked, but unfortunately, we were not rewarded with an outstanding view of the valley as the mountain was covered in fog. After a short break in our hotel, we wanted to continue exploring the mountain, but without visibility and after 30 minutes of rain... So we went back to the hotel to relax and eat. When we checked the weather for the sunset, we could see a slight change in the color of the sky, so we were totally motivated that the sunrise might work out 😊

So the alarm clock rang at 4 am and we walked to the viewpoint. Actually, it was pretty stupid because it was very foggy and we could have just gone back to bed, but since all the 10,000 Chinese people also walked to the viewpoint, we hoped for a miracle... Unfortunately, that didn't happen, so we went back and lay down to sleep for 2 hours at 6 am before we started our descent. It was very unspectacular due to the fog. But for the Chinese people, we were quite a sight that day. We had to constantly stop to take pictures with them. In the end, we felt like celebrities 😅 It's normal to be photographed from time to time, but it was abnormal there, at least 20 times and once there were like 10 phones pointing at us... 

This week definitely started with a nice sore muscles, or rather a muscle tiger, from all the stairs. Let's see what else happens 😄

Greetings Lena