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 Now, the former shabby houses have been replaced by classical-style buildings.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. |
Asia Travel 
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