Reporting from Xian, China — On a rainy morning, pedestrians and cars darted in and out as a bus began climbing a switchbacking road into a steep, narrow canyon that would take us to the base of Mt.

Blurry eyed and still half asleep, I heat up some water and stand impatiently waiting for it to come to a boil. I'm up early, much earlier than usual and honestly…I didn't even knew the sun came up at ...