Emei Shan – 1 of 4 Sacred Mountains in China

With China having so much to offer outside of their main cities, we
decided to head to Mount Emei Shan – 1 of 4 Sacred Mountains in China. It would also be great since we had been looking for a chance to get out into the smaller towns and spend time in the countryside. We decided to spend a couple days at the base of Mount Emei Shan. It’s about a four hour bus ride from Chengdu and is the highest of China’s four sacred mountains. Mount Emei Shan stands at 3,100 meters in height (just under 10,200 feet).

At the base of Mt. Emei Shan

Since we arrived late the first day, we really didn’t have much time
to do any hiking so we just wandered around the base of the mountain
and explored the town a bit. It was surprisingly expensive here, about
double the price of everything when compared to Chengdu. Our only guess as to why it was so expensive was the amount of tourists this place receives and the lack of competition from others.

Starting our hike up the mountain

And up into the clouds…

To fully hike Mt. Emei Shan, it normally takes about twenty hours
which you would do in about two days. But since I had to be back in
Chengdu for a flight two days later and my friends deciding to head
south from here, we really only had the next day to fully spend on this sacred
mountain so instead of hiking the full distance, there is transportation available that will take you up about three quarters of the way up the mountain. We woke up extremely early that morning and took the first bus that was leaving. It was a crazy ride to get to the top and the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees Celsius by the time we got off the bus.

Some seafood and veggies…

We were also stuck in a cloud so you really couldn’t see exactly where the remaining trail was. After a few minutes of searching we were eventually pointed in the right direction and started up the the thousands of steps that remained between us and the summit. Within twenty minutes, we came across a few of the thousands of monkeys that live on this mountain. There was a five foot fence lining the stairs we were hiking but it was hardly meant to keep out the monkeys. They would just climb right over the wall and run about as they pleased. A few unfortunate folks weren’t smart enough to keep their
food and drinks hidden from view. I  witnessed three separate occasions where the monkeys climbed up on someone and either took food from their hand or grabbed a full water bottle from someone’s backpack. We pressed on up the path and continued to hike for the remaining hour and a half passing a monastery along the way. When we first started the hike, we were literally in a cloud but by the time we were within a thousand feet of the summit, the sky opened up and the clouds lingered
in the valleys below. We finally made it to the first major overlook that was just below the summit. When we eventually turned around towards the path we were on, we noticed this huge Buddha looming over the trees…

The last bit of hiking before reaching the summit…

As we climbed the stairs to reach this Buddha, there were large
incense sticks going around. Upon reaching the base of the Buddha, we
were essentially at the summit although you had a few different
options. You could continue on up a few more steps ahead or go to your
left to reach the far end of the mountain for another view. Of course
we decided to do both and each end of Mt. Emei Shan were both
breathtaking. You can understand why this mountain is considered sacred before you even understand its history. And at over 10,000 feet above sea level, you would think it would be much colder than where we started from before making our two hour ascent but there was not a cloud in the sky and the sun up here was intense.

When we reached the peak, there were prayer flags everywhere as well
as a few monks walking to and from the distant monastery.

Standing high above the clouds. You can see the monastery at the far end of the mountain.

We spent about an hour on the top then started the hike back down the
mountain. When we made it back to the section which I like to call ‘Monkey
Pass’, there were now at least thirty monkeys running around only this
time they were a lot more aggressive with the tourists than they had
been earlier that morning.

“Monkeys in the Mist”

Ahh, OK

Some were stealing water bottles while
others were just doing a good job of just scaring the many tourists
standing around as they ran through the crowd. Crazy monkeys.
When we reached our starting point, we were back in the clouds but
unlike this morning, it was now so cloudy you could barely see twenty feet in front of you and we had no idea where our bus was.

Descending back into the clouds…

After ten minutes of searching around, we found our bus and were
headed down the mountain for the two hour descent to the middle of
town. Visibility was still only about twenty to thirty feet in front
of us yet our bus driver thought nothing of this.

So this is me taking a photo of a Chinese woman taking a photo of my friend with her kids. Once again, this is mere confirmation of our rock star status even on top of a sacred Chinese mountain

Firing in the second fireproof area is OK though…

We had to descend
thousands of feet in just two hours so you can imagine the amount of
switchbacks that had to be made. I guess our driver either got paid by
the trip or thought we had some magical halo around our bus. He was constantly passing any vehicle that was in front of us and was doing so going into switchbacks where he had close to zero visibility. Smart. By the time we reached the bottom, you could smell our brakes burning throughout the bus.

Can you see out of the front window? Yeah, neither can the driver…

There wasn’t much else we did that day as it was fairly late by the
time we reached our guesthouse but the dinner I ended up with is
definitely worth mentioning. Should anyone come to Mt. Emei Shan and
stay at the Teddy Bear Hostel, do yourself a favor and don’t order the
Big Bear Hamburger on the menu. After a long day of hiking and days
of nothing but sketchy Chinese food, I had seen this item on the menu
the day before and was set to order it that night. I had high
expectations.

What I ordered….

…And what I was given!

Like I said, do yourself a favor and order the noodles! When I asked
him what it was that was sitting in front of me vs. the picture on the menu, he
had told me, “That picture is competitor’s burger” – Oh, I guess I
should get their address then. For the next five minutes, I sat him down to explain to him what false advertising was and why it’s illegal in
my country….

Heading back out for food after my disappointing Big Bear Burger

So my original plan from here was to travel to Shanghai as well as Hong Kong but after almost 3 weeks traveling in mainland China, I was ready to get away from the crowds of people and the traffic. The friends I’d been traveling with were headed further south and I had decided I would head to Tibet from here. It is no easy task to get into Tibet at the last minute but my plan was to head to Everest Base Camp via Tibet. Bring on the Himalayas…..