Mount Tai, the Sacred Climb — editorial illustration
泰山

Mount Tai

the Sacred Climb

Editorial illustration · not a site photograph
  • 2 daysthe climb, the sunrise, the descent
  • May–Octbest months; dawn start for the sunrise
  • By railTai’an, under 20 minutes from Jinan West
  • Reservereal-name tickets, passport required

Mount Tai is the head of China's Five Great Mountains and the country's original sacred climb. For three thousand years emperors came to sacrifice to heaven and earth on its summit; Confucius climbed it and found the world small; Du Fu wrote the poem every Chinese schoolchild still recites. The mountain itself — 1,545 meters of granite above the plains of western Shandong — is a stairway of temples and inscribed cliff faces, crowned by the single most famous sunrise in China.

Mount Tai, the Sacred Climb editorial travel scene
Mount Tai, the Sacred Climb · editorial illustration

The full handbook is part of the paid series

You have read the free preview — the introduction and the route map. The complete handbook adds the day-by-day plan, tickets and transport, culture and etiquette, food, useful Chinese, and the dated source list.