Mount Taishan
Mount Taishan (Chinese: 泰山) is located in the center of Shandong province and spans two cities (Taian city and Jinan city) with an area of 426 square kilometers. Mount Taishan was also called Daizong (meaning the principal mountain of China) in ancient times and was then renamed Mount Taishan in the Spring and Autumn Dynasty (770-476 BC). It was also known as Dongyue (the Sacred Mountain of East China), referring to the best among the five most important mountains in China.
In 1987, Mount Taishan was listed as a Cultural and Natural World Heritage and was honored “World Geopark” in 2006.
In the Chinese tradition, Mount Taishan symbolized the peaceful life and unified country. Since ancient times, it has been recognized as a blessed mountain by the emperors. For thousands of years, more than a dozen emperors paid their homage to the mountain. Vast quantities of poetry and stone inscriptions were left by emperors, poets and scholars of every era. Confucians and Taoists coexist harmoniously on the mountain. In other words, Mount Taishan has becomes the symbol of Chinese spirit.
There are also peculiar geologic structures as three grand fracture layers, Komatiite rocks and Zuixin Stone (a swirl shaped allgovite rocks); masterpieces of ancient constructions like Dai Temple, Nantian Gate, Bi Xia temple; precious stone inscriptions of past dynasties such as Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) stone inscriptions, inscriptions from rocks of the Diamond Sutra, cliffs with inscriptions from the Tang dynasty (618-907); ancient trees like pine trees from the Qin Dynasty, cypress from the Han Dynasty (about 1,800 years ago) and locust trees from the Tang Dynasty (about 1,200 years ago).
7,000 stone stairs, which run nine kilometers long through the mountain from the foot to the peak looks like the axes of Mount Taishan integrating earth, heaven and humans as a whole. It is regarded as a road between human beings and heaven.
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