UNESCO World Heritage Site – Mt. Tai

                         by David Parmer / Tokyo

                                   有眼不识泰山

                            Yǒu yǎn bù shí tài shān

This Chinese proverb can be translated something like: I was standing in front of Mt. Tai and didn’t even know it. It means that one did not recognize something or someone great. In stories like The Water Margin this proverb is often repeated when a character meets a great person or great martial artist and doesn’t recognize them at first.

In reality it would be hard not to recognize the real Mt.Tai in Shandong province for it stands 1545m above sea level and covers and area of 426 square kilometers. Mt. Tai is considered the first among the Five Great Mountains of China. For 3,000 years it has been a place of worship, and human activity on Mt. Tai can be traced by to Paleolithic times.

What’s more, since the Zhou Dynasty in 1,000 BC, 72 emperors have visited Mt. Tai to perform religious ceremonies.There are 22 temples and other structures on Mt. Tai, and the path to the top is composed of 6660 stone steps. In 1987 Mt. Tai was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The organization recognized the mountain for it unmatched natural beauty as well as its man-made architectural features.

Mt. Tai and its temples and natural beauty are truly impressive, so one would have to be half-asleep, or totally un-aware to be standing in front of such a mountain and not recognize it.

Photo: Mt. Tai via wikipedia

UNESCO Taishan Page