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Blogs from Emei Shan, Sichuan, China, Asia - page 3
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March 18th 2009
16th March 2009 - Continued... After arriving in the town of Emei Shan at 6pm, we took a taxi to our hostel for the night where we shared ideas with other travellers on our best route for the following day. Emei Shan is one of four Buddhist mountains, reaching a peak of 3,099 metres (which is 10,167 feet, and according to Wikipedia, twice the size of Ben Nevis.) The route to the top is scattered with monasteries and temples which you can stop into depending on your route. Because of time allowances, our aim was to reach the peak by the second morning in order to watch the sunrise. This meant that instead of the three day recommended route, we would have to customise our trip to be as efficent and beautiful in the time we ... read more
October 19th 2008
The first ten minutes of climbing Emei Shan consisted of some fairly flat trails leading up to the entrance gate. Leisurely, some would say. (I would say, a misleading passageway of trickery and deception that hoodwinked us into thinking a two-day hike would be a walk in the park - but what the hey? It’s two weeks later and I can just about walk again so I shouldn’t complain.) Soon after we paid our entrance fee the first almighty flight of steps loomed ahead of us. We cheerfully began our climb, laughing and talking jovially until the sweats and palpitations set in and we could barely breathe to speak. Stopping at the first resting point to get some water, we wondered how many more steps were ahead (ha ha) and then with words of encouragement from ... read more
September 22nd 2008
Our last day in Chengdu involved nothing more than recovering from our massages and treating ourselves to the Sichuanese delicacy: "HotPot". (For those who are uneducated in the ways of HotPot, please see the text at the end of the blog) Now anyone who has even met Dave, will know of his love for this dish. Penny's first HotPot however nearly ended in disaster. A piece of beef slipped from the hold of her chopsticks and splashed scolding hot chilli oil into her eye. As if that wasn't bad enough, the insuing panic caused her to suck a sprig of Sichuan Peppercorns (similar to the regular type but with spicy and narcotic undertones) down the wrong hole. Her entire throat tingled and numbed, tears streaked her flushed cheeks, her body began to tremor and she was ... read more
Not climbing Mount Emei (Emei Shan, Sichuan Province, China)
Published: August 14th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Emei Shan
August 6th 2008
(Day 124 on the road) To say it right up front: The plan to climb Emei Shan failed completely. From Lugu Lake, we took a bus across the border from Yunnan into Sichuan. The journey was a bit of a mixed blessing: It went through some amazing and remote scenery, but I was sick for about half of the eight hour journey due to the endless bends and the bad condition of the road. Unfortunately, I was also not able to take any pictures for this part of the trip as the road was much too bumpy, but try to imagine a road running right on the edge of a deep gorge, a big muddy river far below, and all this surrounded by lush green peaks. Amazing! After spending the night and the next morning in ... read more
October 18th 2007
Made it to Leshan by 3PM. As soon as I got off the bus I was attacked by men who wanted me to take their taxi. I negotiated with them down to 15 Yuan from their start of 30 CNY (ps…CNY=RMB=Yuan)…I then realized that I needed to leave my bags at the bus station according to advice from Melanie and Mike. When inside inquiring, the nice woman also mentioned that I could take a bus to Leshan for 1CNY. Obviously, that was the best option so I left the taxi driver who was not happy about it. Since I arrived so late, I only had time to do the boat tour to see the Grand Buddha (Dafo). Which to be honest, was totally fine. By the looks of it, even at 4PM the stairs to get ... read more
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October 12th 2007
From Chengdu we went to Emei shan, another one of the sacred mountains in China. Spent 5-6 hours walking the lower region of the mountain. It was luscious, green and fresh. So relaxing to be away from the busy city streets, not a car in sight or a horn to be heard. In many areas on the beautiful mountain, numerous monkeys live. The main aim of the day was to see them! For most of our day we were alone, treking up and down the steps leading the way. We stayed at the foot of the mountain, in Teddy Bear Hostel, a little cold as there was a cold front travelling across China, but perfect weather for a good days exercise! ... read more
I'm sorry I almost burned down your thousand year old temple
Published: October 2nd 2007Asia » China » Sichuan » Emei Shan
September 14th 2007
After my monkey troubles, I continued my hike upwards. Emei is one tough hike. The entire way up Emei is by stairs. I think on this one trip alone, I had walked up more flights of stairs than my entire life combined. A rough estimate is to say that there are six to seven steps per meter, multiply that by roughly three thousand meters, and you have roughly eighteen to twenty one thousand steps. Which, actually understates it because there are parts where you go back down and then up again. Whatever the case, there's no need to take the elevator anymore, walking up the stairs at work will seem to be a piece of cake from now on. Several temples dot the trail up to the top. In the heavy fog, stumbling upon a temple ... read more
September 12th 2007
After many hours of drinking and sleeping to get myself sorted out after my horrible train ride I decided it was time to walk up Emei. It was raining but climbing Emei was big on my to do list. I waited for a break in the rain, left my belongings at the hostel, packed one change of clothes and some bare necessities and headed out. It was around one o'clock in the afternoon, so I was only able to hike about five hours before the sun began to set. Getting a bit lost in the beginning didn't help. Emei Shan is truly marvelous. The mountain has a subtropical climate and is lush with vegetation. A handful a major streams run down the mountain, at some points they form spectacular rapids and roaring waterfalls. For each stream ... read more
Stairway to heaven...Of monks and monkeys
Published: August 9th 2007Asia » China » Sichuan » Emei Shan
June 30th 2007
/Steven/ We chose to make a trip to mount Emei, a holy Buddhist mountain near Chengdu and 3099m in elevation. Lelde has been plagued for a while with a sore ankle which can deteriorate, so we decided to tackle the mountain as a descent for the most part. We started by getting a bus to Emei( pronounced omay) town, then to the tourist fabrication of a village at the foot of the mountain. We got a bus to a site close to the top( unsurprising that the Chinese would capitalise on a sceneic beauty such as this by building roads and cable cars to service the domestic tourist industry), then ascended steeply around 200m. The top of the mountain was adourned by a fantastic golden statue of a many faced deity, and a view of ... read more
March 23rd 2007
One of the 4 sacred mountains of China. Typically they are a chain of summits, very high, with gloruis view and temples are spread over and piligrims come to pray. Eami shan (shan = mountain) is almost 3100m high. It is cloudy both in off/on seasons and it is probably impossibple to see a good sunrise anytime - but the pictures in the brosures are mashu mashu. In our case the off season disadvantage is the low temprature at night - we're talking minus. Again, from chengdu we took a 2 hours bus to the village below the mountain. The mountain "mitromem" form 500m hight to 3500m - so this should be a very hard klimbing. To avoid that, we took a bus that takes you directely to the summit - well 2 hours from ... read more
