The Halfway Gate to Heaven

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.

Publishes at : 07-09-06 21:51

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