Huangshan stump-tailed macaques on Anhui's Huangshan Mountains. [Photos by Wen Zhenxiao/Huang Yiming/Zhao Renbao/Liu Bingsheng/China Daily]

Jiangsu province's Huaguo Mountains are peaks upon which some monkeys frolic. Others are frozen in stone.

The living primates scuttle up sculptures of the mischievous Monkey King, the protagonist of one－arguably the zaniest－of China's four great novels, Journey to the West.

The heights are said to be the saucy superhero's home.

Visitors can pose with a trained monkey dressed as the Monkey King in front of the Water Curtain Cave through which the deity dashed to become supreme ruler of his kind. That is, before splashing through to the other side, cultivating magical powers and questing to India.