The Street of Heaven on Mount Tai.

sacred mountains.

    As every Chinese knows,  it is at Mount Tai that human culture and nature are most perfectly and harmoniously blended. It has been worshipped by people since antiquity, and regarded as the symbol of social stability and national unity. A saying about the Chinese people goes that "If Mount Tai is at peace, the whole country is at peace." It was the only mountain in China where ancient emperors offered sacrifices to Heaven and Earth. Seventy--two emperors and sovereigns went to Mount Tai, meeting with royalty and nobles, bestowing high ranks, and making inscriptions on stone tablets.  Men of letters made pilgrimages

Rock carving.

    The Mount Tai panorama begins with the Middle Gate to Heaven. Standing here and looking north, we saw the whole mountain, forested and fortified, its steep staircases hanging high, just like a huge Chinese ink painting where light and dark set each other off to perfection. Without noticin9, we reached the pine woods where the l 8th century Emperor Qianlong wrote the inscription:"The Finest Place on Daizhong(i.e.,Mount Tai)." The stone steps are hidden under the woods, their edges overgrown with moss. Both stones and moss are dark in color and it

The "Slow Eighteen Hairpin Bends" go from the foot of the mountain to the Dragon Gate, the "Neither Quick Nor Slow Eighteen Hairpin Bends" go from the Dragon Gate to the Arch of lmmortals Ascending, and the "Quick Eighteen Hsirpin Bends" to the South Gate to Heaven.There are a total of 1,630 steps.

    Reaching the Arch of Immortals Ascending, and looking up, the staircase of the Eighteen Hairpin Bends looks just like a scaling ladder to the sky, hanging between Xiangfeng(Soaring Phoenix)Ridge and Feilong(Flying Dragon)Rock and swinging in the air. Climbing this stone staircase felt like heaving myself up every step of the way.

    As soon as we came to the Street of Heaven, the heavy fog suddenly disappeared;the tourists seemed to have descended from the sky,strolling at their ease. As we approached the Ancestral Hall of Azure Clouds, having passed the Imperial Sacrificial Altar and the Confucian stele with the line of "On top of Mount Tai, the world looks Small, "a light wind blew up, and the sun came out flooding the street in sunlight. Looking down to the foot of the mountain, everything became "a small world."Everything was visible:fields and households, rivers and mountains, as if freshly purified, a paradise world of peace and simplicity.

    After passing the Azure Cloud Temple, the Grand View Peak cliff inscriptions appeared. There are still over l, 500 cliff carvings on the mountain, mainly in the temples and along the two sides of the "Hairpin Bends."It can well be called a "Calligraphic Museum of the Chinese Dynasties. "The Grand View Peak has the mountain's largest collection of rock carvings from past dynasties. They include "the sky is as high as the mountain."0nly the sky is above,"ascend the peak to attain perfection."The matchless beauty of the calligraphy aside, the bold and uninhibited manner of the words alone is enough to show the imposing presence of Mount Tai.

    The ancient theory of the "five elements"combines the season, colors and position to determine the good or ill fortune. Mount Tai is situated in the east, belongs to sprin9, and is the incarnation of the Green Emperor. The east is the place where all things grow. The four seasons begin with the sprin9, when everything comes back to life and grows. The beginning of spring is Tai(peace), So Mount Tai naturally became the place for offering luck and happiness. Therefore, the ancient people also believed that Mount Tai was the place of immortals, the mysterious paradise, the symbol of China, s ancient civilization and belief.

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