The last three days have been breathtaking. Literally and figuratively, as I've seen some amazing sights, but I still can't catch my breath from the exertion. I saw the world's biggest Buddha, climbed a holy Daoist mountain, and slept in a monastery.

Not just big, biggest

The world's largest Buddha is in Leshan, two hours away along a new, deserted expressway. He was big indeed: 70 meters high, sitting down. And he was thronged with Chinese tourists, all jockeying to get their pictures taken in front of him.

I found the city of Leshan to be interesting. A big city with 4 million people (China has A LOT of big cities). It's a little rougher around the edges than Chengdu, but is being gentrified. At night there are people everywhere: strolling along the boardwalk, exercising or dancing in groups, or watching the cultural performance in the town square. Everything is all lit up at night, including the trees, which have green and pink lights shining on them, creating an eerily beautiful atmosphere.

The next day I went to Emei Shan, one of China's four holy mountains. And I realized I had learned my first Chinese character. Shan means mountain, and I recognized it on my bus. Only 9,999 more to go to achieve basic literacy.

Emei Shan was painfully beautiful. Painful because I climbed all the way to the top. Two eight hour days of climbing stairs, starting at 500 m and ending at 3,000 m. It was the Annapurna circuit rolled into two days, and the single most demanding thing I've ever done.

Holy fog, Batman!

But it was worth it to see the fascinating monasteries, shrouded in fog. I even got to sleep in one. It was extremely basic (that means I won't talk about the toilets), cold, and damp, but oozed atmosphere and history.

Even though I climbed all the way to the summit, I wasn't disappointed at it, because I knew what to expect. It was too foggy to see anything, and was thronged by Chinese tourists. It's also a construction site. Emei Shan is a major Chinese tourist attraction, and they have spent huge amounts of money turning it into a world class park. There are busses, cable cars, and even a monorail (!) all the way to the top. Most Chinese people take these all the way up, then pose for pictures in their finest suits and dresses, looking disdainfully at the sweaty, panting foreigner.