A towering 5,000 feet high, with more than 7,000 steps, Mount Tai, in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, is known for turning legs to jelly for anyone game for scaling to the top.

Jess Jiang is a Senior Supervising Editor for Planet Money. Previously, Jiang was a producer for NPR's podcast Rough Translation, where she helped tell deeply personal stories like the delicate ...