Mount Tai

Mount Tai reaches only 1,545 metres, but it stands alone above a plain, which earned it its status. The fengshan ritual, a sacrifice to Heaven and Earth from the summit, could be performed only by a ruler whose reign was judged prosperous enough: tradition counts seventy-two, but very few actually performed it. The stone path is lined with temples, stelae and more than eighteen hundred calligraphies cut into the cliff itself, some two thousand years old. People climb at night to watch the sun rise from the South Heavenly Gate.