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Published: October 18th 2011
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I organised the trip to Mount Emei for 31st August with the help of the staff at the Nova Travellers Lodge. I had to get a taxi to the main bus station in Chengdu and then the 2 ½ hour bus to Emei Shan followed by a taxi to the Teddy Bear hostel. In the afternoon I walked up to the nearest temple where there was a nice waterfall and some carvings built into the rocks. In the evening I ate Sweet and Sour pork at the hostel and bumped into some people I’d met in Xian the week before. We watched King Arthur on the hostel’s massive projector screen. Early the next day I purchased the entrance and bus tickets and headed to the top. I was planning on spending two days to trek down to the bottom and that night stay in one of the temples.
Mount Emei is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, and is traditionally regarded as the bodhimanda or place of enlightenment. During the 16th and 17th century martial arts was practiced in the monasteries of Mount Emei and there is reference to the Shaolin Monastery as Chinese boxing's place of origin
(see Kill Bill Volume 2). The site is the location of the first Buddhist temple built in China in the 1st century and the mountain has seventy-six Buddhist monasteries of the Ming and Qing period, most of them located near the mountain top. At the summit bus stop I decided to walk up rather than get the cable car and after around 3 hours of trails and steps I was at the summit where there was this massive Golden statue of Samantabhadra. Along the way I met lots of interesting characters including Monks and friendly Chineese tourists who loved to take lots of pictures with me (nutters!!) and joke about speaking English. At approximately 10,000 feet the view was obscured by the clouds but it was very atmospheric and it felt a very spiritual place.
On the way down I met a lovely Chineese couple (Sheng and Chan shortened versions of their names) who spoke good English and we chatted about our different Cultures and histories and alsothe Olympic games in 2012 . They worked together as Tax Inspectors in Nanjing province and they recommended lots of other places to visit in South West China. It was really helpful meeting
some local Chineese people, something I’d probably not have done had I been with a tour group. We met lots of other locals on the way down and they could translate what everyone was saying for me it was a great experience. We got to the temple just before sunset and I checked into my small room for the night. It was pretty basic and they gave me a flask of boiled water to drink. The showers and bathrooms were on the other side of the temple. There was another Brit staying there who had been on the mountain for 2 days and we all agreed to set off at 7am the next day. Breakfast was at 6am and for 10 Yuan you got some rice bread, water and pickles (luckily I’d packed some cheeky chocolate biscuits the day before!). We got safely through the Monkey zone however one jumped on Sheng’s back and tried to rip her backpack off her. Waving small rocks, shouting and stamping the walking sticks scared them off though but she was shaken up for a while. Those Monkies are nothing if not tenacious!!. We got down to the 1st level bus station at around
3pm and there were lots more lakes, rock carvings and waterfalls together with craft stalls to brouse through. When I got back to the hostel I picked up my togs and went to the magnificent Hots Springs pool which was very relaxing. The movie that night at the Teddy Bear hostel wasn’t as good (2012 Doomsday) so I caught an early night as my legs were killing me and headed back to Chengdu the next day in order to get the 5pm flight to Gulin.
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