Cable car alert! Yes, this is another WHS with a cable car (there are even two). It is a good cable car experience here, the ride takes about 15 minutes and is not recommended for people with a fear of heights. The day of my trip had started out very cloudy, and in the last minutes up to the top the cable car was totally covered by the clouds. A little spooky.

I was dropped at the South Gate to Heaven, almost at the top. ‘The top’ actually is quite a large area with several shrines and monuments. It is worth spending an extra 5 Yuan on top of the 125 Yuan entry fee to visit the 11th century Azure Clouds Temple. While most of the mountain is like a bazaar with tourists and hawkers milling around, the temple is a serene place where worshippers sacrifice money and food to the Azure Cloud Goddess. This Taoist temple also has several fine artistic details, like yellow glazed tiles.

After looking around at the top for an hour or two, I decided to walk down to get some feel for what the genuine pilgrims who walk uphill have to endure. Well, it’s very, very steep. And all stairs. The autumn landscape is marvellous though. The sun had come out and the walking was a pleasure. It took me 75 minutes to get to the Midway Gate of Heaven. From there I took the bus back to the base of the mountain at Tai’an, the end of an entertaining day trip.