With the Mid-Autumn Festival and its accompanying three-day weekend coming up, InternChina Chengdu decided that the time was ripe for a trek up the classically scenic Mount Emei (峨眉山).
Bleary-eyed and hung-over, we took an early bus from Chengdu to the town of Emei, just at the foot of the mountain. Upon our arrival, we fuelled up with lunch in a quaint restaurant, were treated to an animal butchery show in that very same restaurant. Afterwards, we armed ourselves with our trusted travel companions and set off.
And so we began our epic journey, ten companions and one goal: The Golden Summit. The only thing that could stop us was… well… 4,000m of uphill steps, rain, landslides, rocks tumbling, slippages and scores of monkeys. However, despite the daunting prospect of reaching the top, we were in awe of the stunning scenery.
The journey wasn’t just milling around pretty waterfalls and valleys. There was a lot of suspense involved too. By suspense I mean dodging jumping monkeys on a wooden and rope drawbridge whilst surrounded by tourists who were teasing them. Once we’d broken through the pandemonium (and a long stretch of torrential rain), we arrived at our stop for the night- Xianfeng Monastery.
Staying in the monastery was as peaceful an experience as one might expect, except oddly enough I personally didn’t see any monks during my stay (?). Day two began by waking up and God-knows-when and setting off at crazy-o-clock up what’s called ‘99 bends’. I didn’t count them. It would have been mental torture. Nevertheless we soldiered up, met some nice Chinese tourists, passed another monastery and eventually reached the clouds.
Yes clouds. We were walking through clouds. It was a very surreal and, ignore the pun, mystifying experience. However, by this time of many for us the trek was beginning to take its toll physically. After having lunch at one of the stop points, we decided to split the group: some pushed on the summit while the others meandered along a few hours behind to cop out and take the cable car.
The last stretch after the cable car station was by far the hardest. We were down to half our original number and were skimming it for time. We walked and we climbed and we despaired at being told we still had many kilometres to go. But then, as if by a miracle, we could see the blue sky again and within half an hour we had made it to the Golden Summit. The sun was full on our faces and we had a spectacular view above the clouds. Considering that only happens on a few days in September, I’d say we were pretty lucky.
Two weeks ago a friend and me made a two day trip to beautiful Mount Emei (峨眉山 – E Mei Shan) ca. 150km / 2,5 h bus ride south of Chengdu to do a little bit of hiking.
With its peak at 3,099 m Mount Emei is the highest of the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism in China and since 1996 also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are more than one hundred monasteries and temples doted along the slopes and peaks of the mountain.
First we arrived at the village at Bao Guo Temple (报国寺) which is the entry gate to Emei Shan National Park and equipped us with food, drinks and –following the advice of the locals – a walking stick to protect ourselves. From there you can either cheat and take a bus straight up to the cable car at 2,500m or go to one of the hiking tracks at the foot of the mountain – of course we opted for the strenuous hike!
After we walked past the various food and souvenir stalls around the bus station we made our way up the mountain through the ‘Natural Ecology Monkey Zone’ where we soon realized what the stick was meant for. The Tibetan macaque monkeys in this area are stealing snacks, drinks, cameras or anything else within their reach of careless tourists walking by. This can be quite fun as long as you are not the one being looted by them! 😉
We finally managed to pass the monkeys without losing anything of value and went on a 5 hour hike up to the Yu Xian Monastery (遇仙寺) which would be our home for the night. On our way up we were literally the only ones on the track, which, since you are actually never alone in China, can be a very relaxing feeling. This gave us the chance to really enjoy the gorgeous scenery.
When we woke up the next day the whole mountain was covered in a thick layer of clouds which made the giant statues on the Golden Peak Summit (金顶) look a bit surreal, but I managed to snap a photo when the sun came out for a few seconds.
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