Stairway To Heaven

The stairway to Heaven has 6,666 steps, and you can tell when you’re near the top when you can look down on the clouds below. The topmost part of Mt. Taishan, marked by rocks enclosed in a circle, is not called Heaven, but the main street several steps down is — a short strip of shops in a 2,000-year-old community where a dingy restaurant offers non-Chinese visitors coffee to go with their boiled sweet potato or camote.

On Heavenly Street there’s a small hotel where visitors tired of climbing the steps to the Taoist temple near the top of the mountain can spend a night or two.

The breathtaking scenery, reminiscent of a Himalayan landscape, is worth the climb to the top. But don’t be scared; there’s an easier way up — by cable car.

Mt. Taishan, in China’s northeastern province of Shandong, is the first of the five sacred mountains of China. Seventy-two Chinese emperors ascended the mountain at least once in their lifetime and held ceremonies there, seeking the blessings of the Taoist spirits. In 1983 the mountain was declared a world cultural and natural relic by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Land of silk, ceramics and natural springs

Mt. Taishan is just one of the wonders of Shandong, a province that China is starting to promote overseas as a tourist destination. Shandong, which you have probably heard of as Shantung, boasts of being the birthplace of Chinese ceramics and silk.

There’s also the delectable cuisine, although for the queasy, it may be advisable not to ask locals what you’re chewing with gusto. You could be munching on deep fried scorpions or relishing the braised skin of sea worms.

Shandong’s capital is Jinan, called the "City of Springs" for its 72 natural springs, the most famous of which is 2,700 years old.

In Jinan you will find the Lingyan (Magic Cliff) Temple, one of the top four Buddhist temples in China. Built in the Soong Dynasty (960-1279), it features 40 life-size statues of Buddhist monks in various poses and even different races. From there you can proceed to a veritable forest of "tomb towers" used to hold ashes during ancient times.

Birthplace of Confucius

Apart from Mt. Taishan, Lingyan Temple and the springs of Jinan, there is one other destination you must not miss in Shandong: Qufu, birthplace of the great philosopher Confucius. In this charming county nearly a fifth of the population of 600,000 claims to be descended from Confucius and bears the surname Kong.

In Qufu you can find a mansion and temple built in honor of Confucius. Be sure to visit the tomb of the philosopher, in the Kong family cemetery so vast it is described as a forest. The tombs of the 76th Duke of Kong — a direct male descendant of Confucius — as well as those of his three wives and concubine were dug up by the Red Guards of Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution. The corpses were strung up on trees.

These days tour guides talk openly of the excesses of the Mao era, and tell visitors that the 77th Duke of Kong still lives in Taiwan.

The best place to live in China

After immersing yourself in China’s Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist heritage, you can experience 21st century China in Qingdao, Shandong’s coastal city made famous by Tsingtao beer.

The brewery was set up by a German. Traces of the German colonial era have been preserved even as the city continues to be transformed into an ultra-modern city. Qingdao has been voted the best place to live in China, according to tour guides.

From the city proper you can take a boat and spend the night on a nearby islet, where you can join a local fisherman as he goes out to sea for the day’s catch.

Qingdao is where you can sample braised sea worm. And don’t forget to feast on abalones in their shell. Qingdao abalones are renowned in China. The meat isn’t rubbery and tastes exquisite, and the inside of the shell is prized for its rare beauty: a shimmery greenish silver.

From the street of Heaven to an abalone shell, Shandong is unique — and unforgettable.