A realization after 20,000 staggering steps to Pillar-of-Heaven Peak

Growing up in the United States, most of my introduction to China came through the lens of film. Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan taught me to become one with water to master the body to devastating effect. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero fine-tuned the idea so that I understood that physical mastery was more about attunement to the balance of nature and creating calmness and peace within oneself. As with all film-based education, these lessons were shallow, rooted in metaphor and narrative rather than fact. But there is one place where one can catch those impressions.

One autumn morning in 2013, I arrived at the foot of Wudang Mountain in Hubei province. My mother and younger brother were with me. Mom planned to ride the cable car to the top, but my brother and I had backpacks filled with water bottles and granola bars. Twenty thousand stone steps spiraled up the mountain ahead of us toward the Pillar-of-Heaven Peak, often accredited as the birthplace of Taoism.

I took the first step and counted "one" aloud. It was not a steep step, and I felt confident I would be fine getting to the top, having counted along the way. Around the 100 count, my brother asked me if I planned to count all morning. I inferred he was annoyed by the sound and began counting in my head.