Mount Fanjing in southwest China

© zhuxiaophotography/Shutterstoc

Cloudy with a chance of enlightenment. Mount Fanjing

We’re here in China’s Guizhou province peering over at Mount Fanjing. Rising more than 330 feet above the surrounding landscape, visitors will need to climb almost 9,000 steps to reach the summit. Look closely at the image and you can see how the stairs wind up, up, up around stone outcroppings and through a gorge.

The buildings you see perched at the top are two Buddhist temples – the Temple of the Buddha and the Temple of Maitreya – linked by a small footbridge. For visitors who can’t fathom walking the 8,888 steps to the top, there’s a cable car that will take them two-thirds of the way there. Wherever you are today, we encourage you to forego the cable car, the elevator, or the escalator, and take the stairs instead!