On the move: Mount Tai (TaiShan)

This year we have been joking that some of the trips could be divided under 2 kinds of themes:

1. The AAAAA Trips. China National Tourism Administration has selected the best tourist destinations in China, the absolute best of them have received AAAAA (5A) ranking. Read more about it from here. Over the almost 2 year time I have finished up in quite some of them.

2. Other trip can be called the Chinese Yuan Trips. On the front side of every Chinese Yuan is always smiley Mao, but on the back side there are different landscape or important building views.
100 Yuan has the congress building in Beijing
20 Yuan comes with Yangshuo karst hills motives.
5 Yuan has the top of mount Tai

So by visiting mount Tai would give a good advancement in both theme trips :). If visiting China for first time and there are only 2 weeks to see all of it, this place for sure shouldn't make it to the list of places to visit, but as currently my home is just 3-7h bus trip from Tai, then it is definitely a must.

Mount Tai is one of the 5 holy hill tops in China. In past the emperors were making their pilgrim to this mountain, the saying goes that if mountain didn't let the emperor on top of it, then he is not the man for the job.
Today Mount Tai is 5A tourist location with about 10 million people visiting each year. The main front stairway is full of different famous rocks with wise sayings engraved in them. On the way there are different gates to pass: Midway Gate to Heaven, South Gate to Heaven, Archway to Immortality, etc. On top are the spots for watching sunrise, restaurants and some mountain hotels.

Sunrise, the reason for millions to climb the mountain.

Passage gate on the back side of the mountain

Same passage

On the way up. We had decided to climb the whole way up and down. Each direction took 4 hours of hard core stair climbing. For the people not in their pilgrimage, cable cars can make the whole trip, including sightseeing at the top, in 2 hours.