Today we climbed Tai Shan (or Tai mountain) to the Temple of Heaven for lunch, and then to the summit. This is known as the greatest mountain in China, even though it isn't the tallest. Once we got there the decision was made to have Connor take a gondola to meet us at the top because of his torn acl and the amount of climbing we were about to do. The rest of us took a bus halfway up the mountain so that we only had to climb 3000 stairs instead of 6000. Those 3000 stairs were on a very steep incline, so needless to say we were all tired. It took us about 2 hours to climb, which really impressed me. At some points I considered giving up and questioned why I didn't just take the gondola with Connor, but I climbed every step and eventually reached the top. Even though it was very tiring, getting to the top was so rewarding and the view was gorgeous. It led us to finding a really cool spot on top of some rocks that had an amazing view. We took the gondola down so we got to see the mountain and the city of Tai an underneath us. It is so cliche, but the work was worth the reward. I'm so excited to see what tomorrow brings us.
-CoCo Steinthal