Emei Shan & Three Gorges Cruise 20-25th April

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Emei Shan 20-22 April
After the Pandas at Chengdu, and the huge Buddha at Leshan, we jumped back on the bus and made our way to the town of Emei, to stay in a Buddhist temple. The Temple of 7 Buddhas as it is known, sits at the foot of Emei Shan (Mount Emei to me and thee) and includes accommodation for about 40 people. We were warned beforehand that the accommodation would be basic at best, and not up to the standard of the hotels we had been in until then, but it turned out to be just fine. The only minor intake of breath happened when we were shown the shower (photo attached) but the water was hot and plentiful so who cares what it looks like!
To say it was a unique setting is an understatement. From the veranda around the rooms we looked out on the main body of the temple, where the Buddhist monks gathered at 5am every morning to chant and pray together (our wake-up call actually), to the left was the temple of 7 buddhas, less than 30 feet from where we slept, and all around us were numerous other significant buildings, shrines, gardens and walkways filled with paying tourists during the day. Other than to experience something so unique, we were in Emei to go hiking on the mountain. It was a dull, wet, miserable day, and the hike matched the weather unfortunately, with the exception of our lunch location, a secluded pagoda with a waterfall and stream nearby (photo!).

We were up early on the 22nd to observe the monks' morning ritual before leaving the temple and heading to Chongqing, an 8-hour bus ride away. We stopped three times on the bus, once to let a woman get out and buy two chickens from a roadside farm, once to stop at another farm to use the toilet (read: hole in the ground) and once for lunch at a service station, pot noodle all round. Chongqing is another sprawling city unknown to most, but popular with tourists as a departure point for a Yangtze river cruise. The boat we took was a cruise ship really, with about 200 passengers (mainly Westerners) on board. We set sail at 10pm on the 22nd, with about 600km of river between us and the Three Gorges Dam. I'll skip most of the boat trip for the simple reason that we didn't do a huge amount really. On day two (23rd) we had a shore excursion to the City of Ghosts, a temple to the guardian of the dead, Yana. He is a very highly respected god with the Chinese, as he looks after all those who die. Interestingly during the cultural revolution when many such historic sites were damaged or vandalised this one was left untouched, such is his importance to all Chinese people. The rest of the day we sunbathed on deck and admired the scenery - high green cliffs and rolling hills, the occasional hamlet and the odd boat.
The following day we entered the three gorges, and as beautiful and stunning as they are, you've seen one gorge, you've sort of seen them all. We took lots of photos (despite the now familiar haze) and it was a good experience, but not one that moved me to write more than 10 words in my diary.
On the 25th we left the boat early, within sight (allegedly) of the dam, and took another bus (6 hours this time) to Wuhan (10million people!) where we boarded our penultimate night train to Yangshuo.
Hmm, actually, despite what I said previously about combining the rest of the trip into one long blog, I think Yangshuo deserves its own 15 minutes of fame, so I will be back with more shortly!

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