The Cloud Step Bridge, stretching over the Tongtian River, stands about one kilometer away from the Halfway Gate to Heaven. It is a well-known sight of Mountain Taishan.

The Bridge is a one-arch stone construction. The pavilion to the east of the bridge, named “The Pavilion for Watching Waterfalls”, is also made of stone. The river valley to the north rises steeply and the stone cliff leans forward while the rapid waterfalls pass. In the flood season, tourists walking on the bridge are usually surrounded by fog and mist and feel like they are walking in the clouds.

The ancients once praised it like this “in the clear weather of June one feels rainy here, late at night in quietness the stream itself plays and performs the bowstring”. They meant it was a sort of fairyland. The rocky level ground under the Cloud Step Bridge is very wide, and is called “the Imperial Tent's Pitching Spot”. It is said that in the year when Song Zhenzong, an emperor of the Song Dynasty, came to Mountain Taishan to make a pilgrimage and bestow honorable titles on it, he loved the place and set that up a tent to rest. Up to now one can see that the tent pitching spots still exist on the level ground. At the north of the Imperial Tent's Pitching Spot, a rock as big as a house lies on the left of the winding mountain paths. Since no one knows where it came from, some people have inscribed three words “the flying stone”.

At the side of the rock there are the famous “Fifth Rank Pines” where Qinshihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, conferred on the pine trees the “Fifth Rank” title of the nobility for their meritorious services in protecting the emperor from rain.

With beautiful scenery and a mass of scenic spots, the imperial route has been the main way to Mountain Taishan both in ancient times and today. It starts from Yaocan Pavilion up to the summit of Mountain Taishan, including many major scenic spots such as Dai Temple, Red Gate Palace, Doumu Palace, Halfway Gate to Heaven, Eighteen Bends, South gate to Heaven, Heavenly Street, Azure Cloud Temple, Jade Emperor Peak, etc.

One can visit Mountain Taishan in each of the four season.

In spring, fresh green gradually covers the mountain slop. Mountain Taishan is decorated with white apricot, red peach and golden capsules of weeping forsythia flowers which blossom prettily. In summer, verdant vegetation grows and hundred streams flow with vitality spreading everywhere from top to bottom. Autumn is the season of the richest colors on Mountain Taishan. Under the clear blue sky, and the leaves of smoke trees and star-like maples are red like fire, the leaves of ginkgo and purple linden look yellow like gold while verdant pines and cypresses do not wither. Mountain Taishan at such a moment is just like a traditional Chinese painting of thick colour.

Mountain Taishan also has special charm in winter when the temperature is lower at the top of the mountain. Whenever the cloud and mist wave to and fro from the top, the water-drops in the cloud and mist run into the cold objects and quickly freeze into ice, and forms spotlessly white glittering and translucent “fog rime”. When the fog rime appears, Mountain Taishan will be covered with silver clothing with thousands of frozen trees blossoming like white pear tress under the sunshine. The whole top of the mountain looks like a dragon palace and dwelling-caves. If drizzle comes, “rain rime” will appear. Thus the top of the mountain will change into an incomparably noble and vivid world of jade.

At the eastern end of the Heavenly Street, and among the cloud and mist there is a solemn towering architectural complex above the stone steps. This is the Azure Cloud Temple. The bronze statue of the Supreme Lady, the Azure Cloud, is offered sacrifices in the main hall.

The bronze statues of the goddess of sending birth and the goddess of eyes stand at both sides. The supreme Lady, the Azure Cloud is the most well-known goddess in the north of China. In the 22nd year of Wanli (1593) of the Ming Dynasty, according to the record of “the Tablet for the Azure Cloud in the East Mountain”, pilgrims traveling on the road toward Mountain Taishan walked for a thousand li. When people asked them why they walked with the calluses on foot for such a long distance, they answered to ask the Supreme Lady of the Azure Cloud for help, for “the Supreme Lady of the Azure Cloud has the ability to bring happiness to all living creatures and fulfill their wishes”. The faith in the Supreme Lady of the Azure Cloud has a history of more than a thousand years. The goddess still stands above the summit of Mountain Taishan and enjoys the sacrifice and incense offered by the pilgrims, calling those who travel or reside far away from their homes and their countries. She will add luster to Mountain Taishan forever.

The Azure Cloud Temple was built in the first year of Dazhongxiangfu (1008 A.D.), at the order of Zhenzong, an emperor of the Song Dynasty. The construction area is limited by its local conditions. It is 70 meters long from south to north, and 35 meters wide from east to west. Mang buildings have been built in this small place such as the gate (entrance), the main hall, the side hall, the bell tower, drum tower, the Joss Stick Pavilion, the building for the emperor, the fireplace, the screen wall, the singing and dancing building and three divinity gates……But visitors can only feel its grander and austerity rather than its narrowness. The temple represents the wonderful construction art and the high techniques of the ancient Chinese builders who had learnt how to build houses according to the local conditions.

The emperors making pilgrimages and sacrifices to Mountain Taishan had made it become a “holy mountain”. Meanwhile, the mountain had also formed a spirit of genuine humanity.

It had started having had the image in the mind of people who also strengthened gradually the human objective consciousness under the enlightenment of Mountain Taishan in the time of Confucius. The thinkers, represented by Confucius and Mencius, had relationships with Mountain Taishan very different from that of emperors, dukes and princes who were eager to make a pilgrimage to the mountain in the time of Spring and Autumn. They had new points of view on understanding Mountain Taishan, the world and themselves. The famous saying, “Ascend Mountain Taishan and you will see the world dwarfed”. Is in fact their resolution of “taking the world as one's own responsibility” and their declaration of standing on the height of Mountain Taishan so as to observe society and life. Mountain Taishan had so huge and influence on Confucius that he mentioned Mountain Taishan in his “the Song of Approaching One's End” before he died:“It is ruined on Mountain Taishan! Beams and posts break! It is withered so as to break a man.” Confucius passed away seven days after he made the song.

In order to commemorate this great thinker, the stone memorial archway, named as “The Arch Marking Confucius Visit”, was built at the foot of Mountain Taishan in the Ming Dynasty.