First off an update on non-travel news. This update comes about largely because I've just had an exciting email from Colin (my supervisor at Leeds) offering me first authorship on a paper we've been talking about writing (conditional of course on me writing the paper) which is a fantastically exciting opportunity, particularly given I'd expected to be 3rd author, and I wasn't sure if the paper would be going ahead anyway, so I'm pretty happy about that (too early for a drink though).

In other 'Simon's life' news, despite the fact I keep telling people that my plan is to go to Stockholm, their applications process STILL hasn't opened, so I'm still waiting to hear from them. Although plan B is to apply to London to do the same thing, I haven't got a plan C as such yet which slightly concerns me given the short time I'll have to sort one out now.

So last time I updated I was in Qufu. Qufu is a small place which I suspect has undergone a lot of change in the last year or so - the lonely planet is pretty disparaging about it for example. I was pleasant surprised walking around at how attractive a place it was. It was also the smallest place I'd been yet (800,000 people only!, I think Tai'an is a touch smaller again). However, I'd been told the Confucian attractions there were largely not worth seeing for the price, and I had some errands I wanted to run anyway, so I didn't do a lot there.

My plan had been to go to Tai'an and climb Taishan, taking all my stuff with me and then moving on to Beijing via Jinan. However, in a classic way to scupper a plan I stubbed my big toe really badly on Monday evening, to the extent that I was pretty certain I couldn't climb Taishan, certainly not descend it.

I still woke up at 5.30 on Tuesday to head to Tai'an, getting straight onto the bus. The journey took almost two hours because of the number of stops we made (it should only take 1). When I arrived I headed South to the other bus station to buy my ticket, thinking that if there was a bus to Beijing at 2.30pm I'd take it and just not bother doing anything in Tai'an. As it happened there was one at 6.30pm, so I bought a ticket thus avoiding any need to head to Jinan (although guaranteeing I'd arrive in Beijing an hour later than my anticipated arrival of 1am on the 'via Jinan' option). Having dumped my bags and vowed that the only way I'd go into the toilets at the bus station again was if I could find some horse blinkers to prevent me looking at the 'Jesus surely that's never been flushed EVER' squat toilets, I headed to get the bus to Taishan (the mountain).

I'm used to the buses being cramped here, but having got off I vowed I'd not step foot on a bus in Tai'an again unless I broke both my legs (clean off) and could thus use them to beat the crowds off. I'm not sure what the etiquette is, but I'm fairly sure you're not allowed to hit elbowing grandmother's in the face no matter how much they just pushed in front of you...but christ on a bike these buses make you wish for that lurch that might just make it happen accidentally.

Bitterness aside, having driven through a fairly ugly looking city (I'm very glad I stayed in Qufu not Tai'an) the mountain area itself was rather beautiful. A quick phone call to tell my Beijing hostel I'd be arriving late, and I decided I could manage a bit of a climb up, so I followed the groups up the hill rather than heading for the mini-bus stations. If I wanted to see Taishan itself, then this turned out to be an error, because I walked a wrong turn and headed up a mountain to the West instead. The route was mostly stairs, but did offer some rather nice views down the valley and crossed over some rivers and so on along the way. At the top I found a temple (not very interesting) where Chinese people were burning bundles of paper I think with money inside - I'll look up what this ceremony is later. From there you could walk further up to the peak overlooking the whole valley and a bit of the valley behind (which I suspect Taishan offers a nicer view of, but to be honest looked to be mostly forested mountainside - so nice but not that spectacular). To get to the absolute peak you have to scramble up some stairs/ladders/stairs cut into the rock and climb using some conveniently located hand holds, but the view is quite beautiful...this is the only part of the walk that even if done slowly might not be 'doable' for some people (none of the OAP's I'd seen further down went up this bit).

Disparity between intention and actuality aside this turned out to be a beautiful route too, and because I was somewhat rushing, aware of my time being short I got up and down in about 3 hours in time to walk into town, grab a KFC (delicious I promise you) and then go to Dai temple ('a traditional stop on the pilgrimage to Taishan). Only 20 yuan for entry to the full complex, which I spent 1 hour in rushing around, and could easily have spent 2 hours in enjoying all the little gardens around it and walking along the various bits of wall that surround the complex. Well worth a look. Photos of all this are now on Picasa.

After the temple I decided I'd just slowly head back to the bus station, partly because I was concerned my bus ticket didn't have a seat number on it (I'd already checked the characters were indeed the characters for the cities I was departing from and going to). The bus was already there when I got there, so I got on at about 17.15 for an 18.40 departure. At 18.50 we departed - this was fine by me. We drove round the corner to the train station and stopped at the transport stop there. This was less fine by me. Hoards more people came on, and someone sat next to me taking my legroom - damn. At 20.00 we left for Beijing. That's 2.45 on a bus...without leaving the departure location. Fuck. Other than a stop at the side of the road for everyone to get off and take a piss we drove right the way through from 20:00 to arrive in Beijing around 3.00. I followed one 'driver' to the road (where the taxis were) to get a cab. Seeing that he was driving some shit box none taxi I abandoned him - something I'd probably have done anyway given he was telling me "oh I know this place [my hostel] 100 yuan off meter, 120 on you know" - bullshit, it only cost me 120 yuan to get to Beijing! As it happens I paid 30 (about $4.50) and checked in at 3.30. Although the night person seemed to be looking at beds with people in (he was) - an idea neither I nor they were keen on - he eventually found mine (out of 8, 3 of which were empty) and I got an alright sleep. Now I just need to book my flight for Korea and enjoy Beijing, something I doubt will be an issue.