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All China Zhangjiajie Tianmen Shan

Tianmen Shan

A total of 999 stairs lead visitors through a massive hole in a mountain known as the Gateway to Heaven.

Zhangjiajie, China

Added By
Alex Timian
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Stairway to Heaven’s Gate   xiquinhosilva / CC BY 2.0
Heaven’s Gate Mountain   Kai atmosphere / CC BY-ND 2.0
Looking down the stairs at Tianmen Shan   xiquinhosilva / CC BY 2.0
  huangdan2060/Wikimedia
Nov 18 2007, AR Frenon aka Spiderman free climbed Tianmen Shan Cave   jaguiness / Atlas Obscura User
Tianmen Shan   merarirubalcava / Atlas Obscura User
  Huangdan2060/Wikimedia
  jaguiness / Atlas Obscura User
Looking up   jaguiness / Atlas Obscura User
The escalator down from Tianmen Shan   jaguiness / Atlas Obscura User
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In almost any condition, China's Tianmen Shan looks otherworldly, like a portal to something greater than the Earth.

Usually shrouded in blinding sunlight or dense fog, visitors climb 999 steps to reach the peak, where they end their trip 4,100 feet up, in a realm where legend believes the gods meet the mortal world.

Standing 420 feet high and 180 feet wide, the cave slit of the "Gateway to Heaven" is visible from any distance below the cave. The exhaustive hike up the hill follows an old path of carved stone stairs, dotted with small wooden huts. The entire path is guided by the portal at the peak, but the views on the way up make it obvious why generations of people in Hunan believed that Tianmen Shan was the realm of the gods.

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Arches Geological Oddities Caves Stairs Mountains Ecosystems Geology

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Added By

atimian

Edited By

Allison, merarirubalcava, jaguiness, Michelle Cassidy

  • Allison
  • merarirubalcava
  • jaguiness
  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

December 27, 2011

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Tianmen Shan
Zhangjiajie
China
29.116525, 110.479221

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