It has its ups and downs with eastern ladder-like structure on a hill (9)
I believe the answer is:
escalator
'it has its ups and downs with eastern ladder-like structure on a hill' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'like structure on a hill' is the wordplay.
'like' becomes 'a la' ('a la' can mean 'in the way of' in French).
'structure' becomes 'esc' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a hill' becomes 'tor' (tor is a kind of hill).
'ala' put after 'esc' is 'escala'.
'escala'+'tor'='ESCALATOR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for escalator that I've seen before include "Mechanised staircase" , "it moves up and down" , "financial clause" , "Moving stairs" , "the easy way up" .)