World China Sichuan Emei Shan

Mr and Mrs Smith - Round the World

Mount Emei Oct 1, 2009

We were all looking forward to our excursion to Mt Emei. Our first night was spent in a monastery at Bangou – the monastery was beautiful and we were all impressed by the standard of the rooms (although the communal showers took some getting use to). The monastery was so tranquil – that is until 4.30am in the morning when the monks bang various bells and chant for an hour but it added to the character of the place.

The next day was a trip to Mt Emei and the Golden Summit where a large gold Buddha stands. We were keen to see the Buddha which was made of 80% copper and 20% gold – we were less impressed when we heard it had only been built 3 years ago for the tourists traveling in China for the Olympics – but it was still impressive as a complex. The trip up to the 3,060 metre summit was reached by a 2 hours bus ride, followed by a 30 minute walk up quite a steep path to a cable car which took you to a point where you had to walk another 30 minutes up stairs to the summit – it was exhausting but even H managed it okay and beat us to the top! Unfortunately, the view from the top was not as great as hoped as the mist/fog rolled in and we could not take in any of the views.

That afternoon we had to walk to our second monastery – this required a 3 hour walk up. Our guide kept telling us how difficult it was going to be, especially the last part which was 1,200 steep steps. But the first two hours were okay (however, it was extremely hot and muggy) and the steps at the end made us work up an appetite for dinner that night at the 'Hard Wok Cafe'. H managed the first part of the walk but ended up being carried in a chair by two locals up the steep steps at the end – it felt like a royal procession with H in front being carried and us all trailing behind!

One part of the walk that we were worried about was the monkeys – we had been told that the Tibetan Short Haired Monkeys that line the path were very vicious, particularly to women and anyone who looked slightly nervous. There was even a monkey emergency centre there that dealt with scratches and bites. We were each given a 'monkey stick' which was a piece of bamboo or a walking cane (which came in handy with the steps as well) and told to hit any monkey that came near. When we reached the 'Monkey Zone' (yes, that was the name of the place) our guide hired two locals to walk with us to help with the monkeys. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any problems but the monkeys did eye us off on several occasions looking for the weak link in the group. We did run into one guy who had been bitten just metres in front of us but we all survived unscathed - they looked quite cute until they bared their teeth. The scenery on the way up the mountain more than made up for the danger and hard work though – we walked along stream that were crystal clear and saw lovely waterfalls through the thick green vegetation.

Our second monastery was lovely as well but we were all exhausted from the 1,200 steep steps to reach it and couldn't wait for a hot shower. This time as well as communal showers we had our first experience of communal toilets which the ladies of the group quickly decided wasn't on and came up with a system of using the monkey stick to signal if you were in the bathroom. Another totally peaceful and idealic spot to stay the night and we all loved the atmosphere of calm at the monastery. We again were woken about 6am by the banging and chanting but only J made it out of bed to witness the procession.

We then had a 2 hour walk down the same way as the previous day (through the monkey zone again unscathed) and then the group split into two – one group went the long way (a 3 hour walk) and the other group went the short way (a short walk and bus ride) back to our original monastery for another peaceful night.