Spring Cheng

Tao Yuan

Roy Kuraisa

Monica Wilson

Priscilla Moore

Spring Cheng was born and raised in China and came to the United States in 1995.  In 2000, she received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Iowa.  Since then she has worked as a scientist and biostatistician in the field of biomedical research.  Currently she lives in Redmond Washington with her husband and their two dogs.   

It was in the Pacific Northwest that Spring has discovered her passion in life: mountain climbing. She has learned and honed her climbing and outdoor skills at a regional outdoor club, The Mountaineers, and volunteered as an instructor for their climbing classes.  She has summitted many technical routes on the glaciated and rocky peaks in the Cascades. 

In 2004, the passion for climbing led Spring back to her home country.  She organized an expedition to climb a remote peak in Western China with friends from the Mountaineers.  The following year, she went on a pilgrimage trek to the sacred Mount Kawa Karpo on the Eastern Tibet Plateau.  It was on these trips she became acutely aware of the fact that so much of China, its history, culture and reality, remains utterly unknown to the Western world.  And yet conventional tourism does very little to bring the essence of China to travelers.

In 2006, Spring founded Mystic Trails, through which she wishes to provide travelers a channel to experience the broad spectrum of China's social life.  As someone who has lived extensively both in the east and the west, Spring is uniquely qualified to share her own perspective of the relationship between the two cultures. 

Adventure can take place both outwardly and inwardly.  Whatever form it assumes, the adventure provides a person with the opportunity to explore the power and complexity of one's inner world and its relationship with the outer world. Through Mystic Trails, Spring wishes to share the joy and wonder of exploration with many more people. 

Tao Yuan was born and reared in Beijing, where he attended college and earned his undergraduate degree. In 1998, he came to the U.S. to attend the University of Iowa and a year later received his Master's degree in Computer Science.  This was quickly followed by a job offer from Microsoft and a move to the Seattle area. Tao is currently a software engineer and one of the group leaders within the Microsoft Windows production team.

It was in Iowa City that Tao and Spring first met and fell in love.  Subsequently, they made the move to Seattle together. Three years after they first met, Tao proposed to Spring on the top of Mount Rainier, a climb which was also their first summit together.  In 2003, they were married on the anniversary of that symbolic climb. 

A natural athlete, Tao excels in a number of sports in addition to mountain climbing, such as marathon running. Competitive badminton, however, is the pursuit dearest to his heart.  Tao competes in state- and national-level tournaments in Washington, Oregon, and on the East Coast, and has won a number of titles.

Today, Tao and Spring believe the support and devotion they give each other is what allows them to follow their passions and live life to its fullest.  

Monica Wilson

Monica Wilson was born with a strong tie with China and the Chinese culture.  At 11 years old, she discovered the ancient Chinese book “I-Ching” and instantly became fascinated with it.  (I-Ching, a symbol system designed to identify order in what seems like chance events, describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy that is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs.) This discovery along with a strong intuition later evolved into a life-long pursuit of understanding of the universe with metaphysical tools and using the tools to help those who seek guidance.  Driven by her endless curiosity, Monica has also pursued diverse paths in the arts and sciences in addition to metaphysics.

Monica is currently an intuitive consultant at East West bookstore and a board member at Sakya Monastery.  Monica met Mystic Trails founder Spring Cheng out of a seemingly coincidental situation.  To their amazement, they have quickly realized how much they share with each other the vision of bridging eastern and western culture, which makes their meeting feel more like an inevitable event than a mere coincidence.  Since then, Monica has contributed to the work at Mystic Trails with her fiercely creative thinking, wild imagination, strong sense of intuition and expansive knowledge and network in all walks of life. 

Priscilla Moore

Priscilla Moore has an unusual tie with Yunnan Province of China.  Her farther was fighting as a “Hump Pilot” over the mountains in Yunnan in WWII when Priscilla was born.  Decades after her father passed away, Priscilla joined the first Mystic Trails’ trekking trip and visited Yunnan where she felt closer to her father’s soul.  However, what awaited her was an experience that brought new meaning to her life.  Meeting the children and volunteer teachers in the Puli Tibetan School marked a turning point for Priscilla. After she came back, she channeled both her compassion for the kids and her creative talents as an artist into the work of raising public awareness for Puli School and their effort of preserving the Tibetan culture. 

Priscilla Moore is also a passionate outdoor woman and a skilled technical climber.  She has been actively involved with the organization and leadership of the Mountaineers climbing club for the last seven years and received the “Leader of the Year” award in 2006.  She has mentored dozens of beginner climbers and led field trips for hundreds of students.  Working for Mystic Trails has provided Priscilla a new type of challenge that taps into both her physical and mental fortitude forged through years of mountain climbing.  Meanwhile, Priscilla would like to share with people her passion for beauty found in both nature and humanity.