Fanjingshan is the strangest skyline in China: a 100-metre finger of rock called the Red Clouds Golden Summit, split in two with a temple on each half and a stone bridge between them. The mountain is a UNESCO World Heritage site, a Buddhist sacred peak, and home to the endangered Guizhou snub-nosed monkey.
The ascent is a production — shuttle, cable car, then a long staircase, with a final chained scramble up the rock finger itself — but the reward is standing on a temple roofline above a sea of cloud. Start early: the summit queue grows fast after mid-morning.