Tai'an - our first experience of being the only white people in the village! Only it wasn't a village, it was a city of over 760,000 people - and we were the only Westerners! Well, true for about twenty-four hours, then we saw some Swedish guys coming into our hostel (who we didn't see again), and on Mount Tai'shan on our third and final day there, we probably saw another handful. But not many!

In fact, it started on the train to Tai'an, from Beijing, which was the local "hard seats" train (three times less expensive and also three times slower than the express trains), when we were the only white people in the carriage.

So, it's only natural, therefore, that people would look at us. But they didn't just look at us, they point blank stared at us! And this has happened ever since, throughout our travels in China. Looking straight back at them doesn't generally encourage them to shift their gaze, either (even the time the guy using the adjacent urinal to me was staring across!). The staring type ranges, as well, from casual, interested, from a distance, to those who actually move to a better position (i.e. three yards away), and stand there with an uninterruptible, trance-like transfixion. There are other varieties, too: the cartoonesque double-take is probably my favourite. The questioning, forehead slightly creased, "I'm sure I've seen that somewhere before but I can't for the life of me think where" stare is similar but not quite the same as the face fully screwed up almost in disgust "what on earth is that?" stare. And the last one I can think of right now is an extension of the double-take, the all out, eyebrows fully raised, frozen in shock, "my god, it's an alien, I thought they only existed on TV" stare. We've had them all! Other pale-skinned Westerners we've spoken to haven't been quite so keen, but I think it's quite funny.

Anyway, I've digressed as ususal. Tai'an. Beijing was so exhausting, more mentally than physically, that our plan was to rest for a day then climb the famous, sacred Tai'shan peak, the "symbol of the Chinese nation", on the second day. But as we couldn't get a train until midnight on the third day, we had two rest days and then a mountain climbing day. Which was great! Our hostel room was basically a hotel room, with a nice, big, widescreen TV and the all important kettle, and as a town Tai'an didn't have much to offer, so we stocked up with food and spent most of two days in our room watching films! In hindsight, a couple of hours sitting on a Tai'an park bench somewhere would have been better than Will Smith's I Am Legend, but of course we didn't know this until it had finished. On day two, in fact, Paula managed the impressive feat of not really even getting up, by not getting dressed, showering or leaving the room once!

The mountain was pretty good, although neither trekking nor hiking quite seem the right word given that Tai'shan has steps all the way to the top. Couldn't see a thing at the summit, thanks to the thick fog, but it was a good bit of exercise!

Moving on, Shanghai trains being fully booked up on account of the city hosting Expo 2010, which was just coming to a close, our intended next stop was changed to Huangshan City for some ancient villages and another mountain to take on.