A Trip to Qingdao: Post-amble... More of a shuffle really

Tai Shan is one of the holy mountains in China that has been thoroughly commercially exploited by the Chinese government for its holiness. It's outside of the city, so I figured it would be a good place to go relax for a bit. Of course I didn't figure that I would do so much walking in Qingdao (8 hours straight, then 2 more after that on the first day, similar figures the second day) that I would injure the arch of my foot the day before climbing the thing. This resulted in me limping up to the entrance to the mountain trail while Chinese people looked on skeptically. Imagine Verbal Kint showing up in Chinatown with a big backpack and beanie, except before he turned back into Keyser Soze, and that was pretty much me.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I managed to make it up to the top of the mountain, where I stayed the night in the hopes of seeing the sunrise the next morning. Here's a rundown of what happened the second day when I woke up at the top of the mountain, in running diary format as usual:

5:45 I wake up and get my things to head outside. The hotel keeper has told me that sunrise is at 6:30.
6:20 I arrive at the spot from which I'm going to view the sunrise. There is some light on the horizon, so I think it might be soon.
6:35 More light, but no sunrise.
6:50 Seriously, this is the longest sunrise ever. Also, I'm at the top of a mountain in winter, so my fingers are numb.
7:20 An hour after I got to the spot, the sun rises. Halfway though, I walk out in protest. Has anyone every officially protested the rising of the sun? I don't know, but I did.
8:45 On my way down, a Chinese guy tries to tell me to hop down the stairs of the mountain to go faster. Thanks, buddy. If I could move at more than a slow shuffle, I probably would.
9:15 I get to the place where there is supposedly another trail that splits off to the west. I can see it. It's on the map. However, there seems to be no way to actually get there. What am I supposed to do? Will myself over there? Hop on my hoverboard? Are they selling magic carpets somewhere?
10:00 My magic carpet stalls mid-flight, so I give up and go back down the way I came up.
10:20 I'm almost down when a couple of Chinese teenagers ask me to take a picture with them. I agree, not knowing that there are about 25 more waiting in photo-op ambush somewhere. I don't know why they ask, since I'm wearing a massive backpack, limping, and clearly look like I spent the night at the top of the mountain. I soon find myself surrounded by a horde of Chinese teenagers wanting to take a picture with Quasimodo. Such is the price of a white face.
11:25 I arrive at a cafe, announcing that I'm the only one eating. I always hate doing this because there's some kind of stigma against eating alone here. There's no stigma against spitting on the floor indoors or taking a leak in public, but there's a stigma against eating alone. I always get this look from the waitress that says: “Eating alone are we? Well, come right this way, I have a table just for you. We usually feed the cockroaches back here, but it should do just fine for you.” Geez.
11:30 I end up at a cafe back in town where I inadvertently order pork fat or cartilage or something else in the not-really-meat-but-eaten-like-meat-in-China category.
1:30 After I catch the waitresses trading one of those, “Is he going to leave or are we going to have to ask him” looks, I leave the cafe and catch the train. I leave smelling like raging sweat and stale anger.

8:30ish I arrive back at the train station and retrieve my deodorant. Then, smelling only like stale anger, I shuffle home.