You might have experienced that feeling, the one when you’re doing something and when you think it’s nearly over, but you discover that you’re not even halfway? That’s what Emeishan was like.Climbing to the golden summit was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, especially when you have spent three months eating and drinking – the only sport I have done so far is walking from home to the closest Sichuanese restaurant. Before embarking on this adventure, our group of eight people exactly knew what was awaiting: a 16 hours hike, wild monkeys and endless steps; but, fearless and eager for adventure it was: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
After a chilled first night at the Hotel in Emei city, bamboo sticks in hand, we headed to Emei mount main gate! Thinking of this endless hiking trip, we were already tired by the first steps, but the view was already really enjoyable! After few hours hiking, we hit the first touristic spot: The monkey place!
Cheeky monkeys… look really cute… yeah, only from far away. Being very excited, we crossed this suspended bridge while approaching them really closely. A bit risky as one of them brilliantly managed to take George’s Coca-Cola bottle by jumping on his bag. That was priceless. We just couldn’t stop laughing. Then, we kept on climbing, crossing water, climbing, crossing bridges, climbing again. For the first hours, loads of Chinese tourists were around us, approaching and asking for pictures. But eventually we reached a point where we were the only climbers remaining. Waterfalls, suspended bridges, nothing around but mountains – we were surrounded by amazing landscapes.
The last hours were probably the longest ever, straight climbing, endless steps. At that time I was in such a state of mind that I just started swearing in French, my beautiful mother tongue, for half an hour (probably one of the reason why the monkeys didn’t approach me :P).
However, we made it to our place for the night – a functioning & ancient Buddhist temple! We were above the clouds, arriving on time to see the sunset. After such a long day, we still managed to stay up for a dinner. However, we reached such an altitude and such a point of tiredness that we spent our dinner laughing for basically nothing. We probably scared the locals forever :D.
After a short night sleep, Suprina and I managed to wake up at 6 am to see the sunrise (I still don’t know how we did that). Still half asleep, pillows in hand, we waited for half an hour and finally, we could see the first lights of the sun. The view was stunning and reminded us why this trip was definitely worth it.
En route, we left the temple, so relieved to see that we had to climb down to the next temple. Until we saw that we had to climb another 2 hours to reach the next one. The whole trip was like that – when you think that you did the hardest, you see another, higher mountain to climb. That temple was the last one where we could enjoy those lovely monkeys company.
After a few hours of more climbing, we shared what was maybe the best lunch ever. We were so exhausted, but still excited to notice that the golden summit was only 2 hours away from us. Fearless, all the girls and 2 boys decided to climb to the top. There was no point for us to climb 14 hours, and give up for two more hours by taking the cable car. 2 hours later, we could see it: the Emei summit steps. All tiredness became a thing of the past and we just started running like mentals, to make it to the top!
We made it! After 16 hours hiking and around 60 000 steps, we reached the peak!
The view was amazing; we were literally above the clouds. After an hour of group selfies next to the Giant Buddhist statue, we took the cable car down in order to take the bus home. I think climbing Emeishan is a great way of challenging yourself, while enjoying one of craziest view on the top; you suffer a lot, be when reaching the peak you realize how worth it it is.
再见！
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Hi everyone!
My name is Helen and I’m from the UK. I arrived a few days ago and I am looking forward to the 6 months ahead as part of the InternChina team in Chengdu.
I have actually been to Chengdu before, so it’s very familiar to me. I first came in 2011 to study Mandarin. Initially a plan of just staying one semester turned into three semesters! I decided to stay longer when my friend came to visit me after the first semester, I was her tour guide for the week and I must admit I sometimes struggled with the language barrier which made me feel as though I hadn’t learned enough! Nevertheless we still had a great time and almost freezed ourselves to death visiting Emei Mountain during the Spring Festival period.
I started to grow more attached to Chengdu the longer I stayed. The culture, the food and the lifestyle. So, why did I leave Chengdu? Simple. I had used all the money I had saved, so it was time to return home. When I saw that InternChina had opened an office in Chengdu and were looking for an intern, I just had to apply, so now I am here again having on left earlier this year!
From the very first day, I have received a very warm welcome from everyone at InternChina (including lots of welcome messages from the other two offices based in Qingdao and Zhuhai). They have already made me feel at home and as part of the team! A very special thanks to Brigitte and Paul who waited at the airport until 2am with snacks and water at hand! Surprisingly, we all still managed to get into the office for an early start the next day. 🙂
I had a spot of a trouble with my luggage, it didn’t arrive in Chengdu as it was suppose to but it finally made it’s way back to me within a couple of days. InternChina have been extremely helpful and it’s only my third day here! If you’re a new intern coming to work at InternChina or even through them, don’t worry, if you have any problems just ask someone and they will provide support for whatever your needs may be.
I will be spending Christmas here again, and it will actually be my third one away from home and I know that it will probably be like my first but with the interns in Chengdu.
It was one of my last weekends here in China and my host-family planned to go to Emei Shan – Unesco world heritage since 1996 – to show me the beautiful view on top of the mountain.The journey began on Saturday morning at 6 o´clock. We took the bus to get to the city right next to the mountain. Quite early but mei you shijian (no time) because we only had one day to climb up.
Three hours later we arrived at our hotel room which I shared with my Chinese family. Kind of an adventure I thought, but fun nevertheless…
While having a walk we got to a beautiful forest area with hidden temples. One of them – quite interesting and something have never seen before – was run only by female Buddhists.
It took me a while to adjust to the walking speed of my family because my host-mum loved taking photos – of everything and everybody all the time!
So at the end of the day we were exhausted, but still had enough time and energy for delicious Chinese BBQ. It only cost us 16 RMB for about 30 various sticks. One of the things which makes me love China. Well fed and satisfied we fell asleep early as we had to get up again at 6 am the next morning to conquer Emei Mountain.
Because my family isn´t that sporty we decided to take the comfy way: Bus and cable car up to the top! It took us 3 hours anyway…
But even during those few steps we had to take, we saw some cheeky monkeys taking food from tourists, beautiful valleys and a lot of other Chinese people who all tried to catch a photo with me… No worries, I got used to that!
Finally we arrived at the golden summit and got to see the bluest sky – including a sea of clouds – you can only imagine, leaving the Chinese pollution and fog right behind us!
It was so cold that we only could take pictures with gloves on to catch every moment of that perfect scenery. For example, the golden Buddha surrounded by dozen of monks praying for healthiness, money and a long life.
We walked around and took pictures as not to forget a single corner of that beautiful area. And of course we had around 20 kg of snacks, soups, noodles and sweets to kill for lunch – which we enjoyed under the sun we hadn’t seen back in Chengdu for the last few days.
But unfortunately we only had two hours up on the mountain before taking the same way back home!
The next time I definitely would conquer that mountain by climbing…
Bye Bye Emei!
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