The South Gate to Heaven is also called “the Third Gate to Heaven”, and is the most well-know symbolic Structure of Mountain Taishan. It is a tower with a stone arch gateway. There is a garret with double roofs above the Gate, known as the Skyscraping Garret. At the two sides of the gateway, a carved stone couplet is written “the gate keeps away the highest Heavens, facing upward the famous historical sites of Heaven; there are ten thousand worshipped steps and look upon one thousand marvelous spectacles of mountain peak.” The outstanding aesthetic value of the South Gate to Heaven depends upon the appreciation of the beautiful. Some experts think that “the concept of the South Gate to Heaven can be said to be an example of combining human landscape with landscape.”

The South Gate to Heaven is built at the lower level between the Flying Dragon Rock and the Flying Phoenix Ridge. The two ridges have set off by contrast its central position; joining with the blue sky, the structure's outline is very distinctive; the red wall is especially attractive with its ten thousand green clumps. The South Gate to Heaven is at the end of the long mountain-climbing stair, since visitors have walked all the way and passed the First Gate to Heaven, the Halfway Gate to Heaven and the Becoming Immortals Arch, they need a taller and bigger “Gate to Heaven” to climax ascending Mountain Taishan. The specially designed South Gate to Heaven brings acclaim as acme of perfection.

Passing the gateway of the South Gate to Heaven, one may go north and turn left to the east. There comes then “the Heavenly Street”. The original stone memorial archway called “rising to the center” was destroyed. The rebuilt stone memorial archway has been named “the Heavenly Street”. The street is between high rocks to the north and steep cliffs to the south. In the old times, poor mountaineers built up a row of small shops along the street, selling tea, joss sticks and candles and providing board and lodging for the Buddhist pilgrim devotees. Most of the mountaineers were illiterate and thus hung shop signs before the indoors with the carved wooden signs such as “gold bell”, “parrot” and “gold or silver ingot” etc. These shops were then called “gold bell shop”, “gold or silver ingot” etc. Now, the former shabby houses have been replaced by classical-style buildings. Shops, restaurants and hotels providing the modern travel necessaries have been built, but they still hand the carved wooden signs such as “The Gold Bell” and “The Goldor Silver Ingot” etc, before the shop doors in order to continue the ancient custom.

There are “Elephant Trunk Peak”, “White Cloud Cave” and “Blue Cloud Cave” on the side of the steep cliff south of the Heavenly Street. Walking east along the street, there is one archway on the north side of the street entitled as “Looking over the Famous Historical Sites of the State of Wu”, it is said that this is the place where Confucius and his student Yan Yuan looked over the State of Wu. One can see that the Confucius Temple is located just north of the archway when one walks up along the stone steps.

There are three well-known Buddhist temples on Mountain Taishan, the Pervading Light Temple (the Puzhao Monastery) before the mountain, the Yuquan Temple behind the mountain, and the Lingyan Temple (the Divine Rock Temple) to the northwest of the highest peak.

The Lingyan Temple was established a long time ago. It was already very large in the Tang Dynasty. Tang Gaozong, an emperor of the Tang Dynasty, once stayed temporarily at this temple when he came to make a pilgrimage and bestow honorable titles on Mountain Taishan. There are many ancient buildings, cultural relics and historical sites in the temple. These include the Thousand-Buddha Hall, the Imperial Books Pavilion, the Five-Flower Hall, the Mahavira Hall, the Pizhi Pagoda (the Pratyeka Pagoda), the Memorial Grove and the Painted Buddha's Clay Sculptures inside the Thousand-Buddha Hall, which were painted Arhat Statues made in the Song Dynasty and praised as “The Most Famous Clay Sculptures throughout the World”.

The Pizhi Pagoda (the Pratyeka Pagoda) is to the west of the Thousand-Buddha Hall. It was set up in the year of Tian Bao, in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the Song Dynasty. The pagoda base was made of stone, engraved with a picture of the underworld with relief sculptures of the nether world. It was made of bricks, 54 meters high, and is the highest pagoda of Mountain Taishan district.

The Guest Welcoming Pine stands at the eastern side of Lanzhuyuan Hill, about 900 meters above sea level at the Halfway Gate to Heaven. It is up against a precipitous cliff with roots grasping bare rocks and the tree trunk leaning forward. The long branches stretch out above all others as if the pine tree is giving regards and waving to visitors.

The pine is the symbol of Mountain Taishan and has bestowed life on Mountain Taishan, transferring the feelings of Mountain Taishan to each visitor. Mr. Yang Xin, professor of aesthetics at Peking University once wrote a poem “Ode to Mountain Taishan” and made such lines as “High but climbable, magnificent but lovable. Pines and rocks are the bones of the mountain, and springs and fountains the heart.” He describes very aptly the relationship between the pine and Mountain Taishan.

The Guest Welcoming Pine has experienced various vicissitudes of life through wind and rain, yet it still stands loftily, making an imposing gesture as it has in the past. For several centruries, it has represented Mountain Taishan, head of the Five Sacred Mountains in China, greeting and encouraging each traveler to keep on climbing up the mountain. Now, whenever people see its unique posture, they will think of Mountain Taishan and feel welcome. It has become one of the most important symbols of Mountain Taishan.

If one wants to climb Mountain Taishan from the Mid-route one has to pass three well-known gates——the First Gate to Heaven, the Second Gate to Heaven and the Third Gate to Heaven. The Halfway Gate to Heaven is located on the Huangxian Ridge (the Yellow Mountain Range). The major symbol is the stone memorial archway, on which the three inscribed Chinese characters “the Halfway Gate to Heaven” have been collected from the Sutra Rock Valley. In the north there is a “Two-tiger Temple”, about three rooms big.

To the west of the temple, there is a huge stone like a resting tiger, which is called “the Hufu Stone”. Looking out from the Halfway Gate to Heaven, one sees the heads of peaks, and Mountain Culai which looks like a mound; one sees higher buildings standing aide by side in Tai'an City, and the trees that line the streets like rivers of green; one sees the highways like white belts in a distance disappearing gradually on the horizon… Looking northward, one sees waterfalls and forest in the Opposing Pines Mountain, the Path of Eighteen Mountain Bends hanging high like a cloud ladder.

One also sees the South Gate to Heaven crouching between “the flying dragon rock” and “Mountain flying Phoenix”. It seems that a man may block thousands of other people if he stops in the pass. When one arrives here, though it is only “Halfway to Heaven”, one feels the greatness of Heaven and Earth and the grandness of Mountain Taishan. Visitors can go to the South Gate to Heaven by cable-car or on foot.