Mount Emei

Emei is the highest of the four sacred Buddhist mountains at 3,099 metres, and pilgrims have climbed its stone staircase — some fifty thousand steps over two days — since the first Chinese Buddhist temple was built here in the first century. The Golden Summit produces the Buddha's halo, a circular rainbow seen around one's own shadow on the cloud below, and the macaques on the path are notoriously unafraid.