Mount Emei — AnotherMile

Our MOUNT EMEI Story

Emei Shan or Mount Emei covering an area of 154 square kilometre is located at the southwest of Sichuan Basin. It is listed as World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996. The highest peak - Wanfoding of Mount Emei is 3099 meters and the Golden Summit (3079.3 m) is the highest spot tourists can reach. It is a mystic landscape of lush green forests, cool mountains and monasteries, and is one of the Four Great Buddhist Mountains in China. It is also the largest ecological monkey zone in China. For the detailed itinerary and other important information please check our blog page.

It is not always that we get a chance to spend the summer together as a family. The COVID-19 gave us that opportunity after four long years. As going back home in India was out of question, we decided to make the best use of our staycation by exploring areas in China that are yet to make their entries in the ‘must visit places’ list . Hence, the long weekend of the Dragon Boat festival saw us exploring the Emei Shān or Emei Mountains in the Sichuan province. Mountain in Chinese is called Shān, and we take immense pride in saying that it is one of those few words we have learned in the last six years of our stay in China.

Mount Emei is about 150 Kms from Chengdu, the gateway to anywhere in the Sichuan province. Our friend in Chengdu had helped to book us a taxi to take us to base of the mountain. The driver was a nice and friendly Chinese guy who was turning 29 in a couple of days. No, he didn’t tell us that until he drove us back from Mount Emei to Chengdu on the third day of our trip and that was another crazy incident.

Mount Emei is adorned with beauty everywhere

Our hotel manager from Leidongping had told us to start early in the morning from Chengdu as it was the first day of the long weekend holiday and a rush of travelers was expected as usual. The thought of foregoing a lazy morning routine made the junior member of our team a little grumpy but without any choice. It took us around a couple of hours to reach the Emei Shān city from Chengdu. It is a small but well-planned and beautiful city with green tea factories. Emei Shān is famous for its green tea.

The driver dropped us to the Baoguo temple base at the outskirts of the city promising to pick us up two days later. Little did we know at that time, that our travel back to Chengdu in his car will be something that we will remember for a long time. From there we boarded the ECO bus that would drop to a place called Leidongping where we were supposed to spend the night. As usual, we were the only foreigners in the bus and the ones with the maximum luggage as well.

The weather became cooler as we went up the mountains, but the sky was overcast. The scenic beauty of Mount Emei didn’t disappoint us at all. It was lush green with tall trees all around the road. It would be a gross over-statement if we call Leidongping a town. It can at most be called a village or maybe a base station for tourists who want to visit the Golden summit. By the time we reached Leidongping, it had started drizzling. Being photography enthusiasts, we wanted to have a glimpse of both sunrise and sunset at the Golden summit. We had read about and seen pics of the famous ‘sea of clouds’ visible from the summit but the weather forecast was telling us that the chance of having a clear sunset was slim. Our hotel manager didn’t sound too optimistic either, rather he advised us to go to the summit that evening only as the next day was supposed to be rainy. So, after a quick Chinese lunch at Leidongping we walked to the cable car station which was around 40 minutes hike from the base. But it was a comfortable hike with a mix of gentle slope and steps. There are local shops on both sides of the route, just in case, the travelers want to have some tea or snacks or would like to buy some local souvenirs. When we reached the summit, the drizzle had stopped but the sky was far from being clear. We had rarely seen such dense fog before when even the Golden Budhha statue was not visible from 50 m distance.

The weather didn’t allow us to do much at the summit and we took the last cable car back to Leidongping. On our way back from the cable car station to the Leidongping base, we came across the famous (or infamous) monkeys of Mount Emei. Well, fortunately, we had the walking sticks with us and we didn’t have any food as well. So, the monkeys weren’t interested in us. One of our fellow hiker had a bottle of tea in the side pocket of his backpack. Mr. monkey was prompt to snatch the bottle from his backpack and snap it open in a moment and relish the drink. This whole incident was so sudden and so fast that we didn’t even have the time to take a pic of the monkey sipping his afternoon tea. We ended the long day with a delicious Chinese dinner and a stroll around Leidongping base. The wintry chill of Leidongping provided much needed comfort from the scorching heat of Shenzhen.

Well, well…. disappointment continued till the third day. We did wake up at 4:00 AM hoping for some clear weather, but all we could manage to see was dense fog and light drizzle. So, we had to give up on our plan of heading up to the summit for a magnificent Emei Shan sunrise and the sea of clouds. We did the next best thing - went back to sleep. Finally, the rain stopped at around 8 in the morning and we decided to venture into the Leidongping jungle. It was such an amazing experience amidst fog and mist. Do not forget to check out the photos!!

After the trip in the jungle, it was time for us to go down to the foothills of the Emei Mountains. Looking back now, we strongly feel that this trip was training us how to adjust with the unexpected. The ECO bus service in the Emei Mountain region is available for multiple destinations on the mountain and we had bought the package tickets for two days and we could go anywhere we wanted. Accordingly, we decided to visit the Wannian Temple before going down to the foothills. But this time, it was not the weather but language that played the trick. The bus that we took had two stops before its final destination at Baoguo temple. We decided to get down at the Wannian temple. After visiting the Wannian temple, our plan was to board another bus to the foothills. But one thing that we didn’t know was that the bus had to take a slight detour to reach the Wannian temple. The driver was smart and he didn’t want to take this detour if there were no passengers for Wannian temple. So, a few kms ahead of the detour, he asked in Chinese, if anyone wanted to go to the Wannian temple. We had no idea about what he asked and didn’t bother to ask our fellow passengers as well. We just ignored, and he went on to his second stop. On reaching the second stop, we were politely informed by the driver that we had missed our chance and there is no way he would take us back there. So, we were left with only one choice, go to foothills and relax in our hotel by the river. Well, we did not regret that at all. The foothills of the Emei Mountain was beautiful and our hotel room facing the river was a perfect place to just put our feet up and chill. We didn’t mind when a a trip that was supposed to be full of action turned out to be a trip with lazy evenings and long sleeps.

Now, there goes the saying ‘old habits die hard’. How long can you keep a photographer away from his camera? He popped out of the bed at 5:30 the next morning and declared that he cannot relax anymore!!! Although it had stopped raining, the weather outside still didn’t promise any great sunrise. But he was determined to make the best out of whatever it offered.

One big drawback of being in company of such a person is that you start feeling guilty of being lazy. So, the rest of us had to sacrifice the comfort of the soft bed as well. However, the walk around the river turned out to be magical and refreshing.

After spending the morning by going around the river bank and some landscape photography, we went to the Baoguo and Wannian temple. Baoguo temple is special as there are deities of three religions, namely, Buddhism, Confucian and Taoism. It takes more than an hour to go around the entire temple complex. The Wannian temple is nestled among the mountains and forests in a quiet surrounding. The temple which is around 1500 years old have an architecture that is quite different from a quintessential Chinese Buddhist temple.

It was time for us to return to Chengdu and thanks to our amazingly talented and crazy driver, we covered the entire stretch from Wannian temple to Chengdu in just three hours. At times we felt that he was not driving the car but flying it. Later he told us that it was his 29th birthday, and as per the Chinese tradition the last birthday before moving up to the next tens is always special. So, his family and friends had arranged a big party and he had to reach in time.

The last day of our trip was our day with the Pandas. We reached the Chengdu panda park quite early as we had the flight to catch in the evening. Panda park of Chengdu is justifiably famous, the park is really beautiful. After a relaxing morning with the cute species, we headed back to the hotel to pack-up and leave for the airport. It was a wonderful trip and the entire stretch is a photographers’ paradise. We had spent three days in the lap of nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the cities.

Have a look at the photos and let us know your valuable suggestions. Hopefully this will help you to plan for the trip to Emei Shan. Feel free to reach out to us with reviews , feedback and if you would need further information.