Overview

The city of Tai'an is situated at the southern foot of Mount Tai, in the heart of Shandong Province, the coastal Chinese province that lies across the Yellow Sea from the Korean Peninsula. To the north of Shandong Peninsula lies the Bay of Bohai, whose nearest bay to Shandong Peninsula is Laizhou Bay. The capital of Shandong Province, Jinan, lies at the northern foot of Mount Tai, while Tai'an lies at the mountain's southern foot - almost due south of Jinan - a distance of only 50 kilometers or so, as the crow flies, though, by road, the distance is of course greater, or 66 kilometers.

The city of Tai'an borrows its name - and its fame - from the mountain, one of the Five Sacred Mountains to Taoism. Indeed, Mount Tai, associated with birth and renewal, is considered the most sacred of Taoism's Five Sacred Mountains. The most striking feature about the mountain is that it rises up from a surrounding plain that is low, relative to the mountain, and in fact, the surrounding plain lies at a low absolute altitude of about 150 meters above sea level. Mount Tai's highest peak, Jade Emperor Peak, lies at 1533 meters above sea level. It is this contrast with the surrounding terrain that adds to the special, majestic nature of Mount Tai, a mountain that is also associated with power - a fact that helps to explain the mountain's popularity among China's successive emperors.