Entry #3

After a quick stop back through Chengdu, we left again for Emei Shan (Mount Emei), elevation 3099 m, about 103 k southwest of Chengdu. This bus ride was only about 2 1/2 hours. Emei Shan is one of the Middle Kindgom's four famous Buddhist mountains, according to my Lonely Planet. Although, as typical in China, it was possible to take a bus most of the way to the top (The Golden Summit), I managed to convince my cousin that we should walk the entire way up, provided I carry the pack. A gorgeous walk, it was worth the effort. I hesitate to call it a hike because there was actually no trail. Rather, the entire route to the summit consists of a walkway of stones and cement blocks. The elevation gain on Emei Shan is more than 2500 meters, which means that the stone walkways contain lengthy sections of very steep steps. On the older sections of the walkway, the stairs are often taller than they are deep, making these sections especially steep. I tried to count the stairs on a few sections, and the often numbered at 500+. I lost track on the longest section I attempted to count (which was nowhere near the longest section we climbed) after 800 stairs when we encountered a group of macaques. The monkeys were in many places along the trail, and are known to steal food from tourists. We made sure to be empty handed as we walked, to avoid being accosted by the monkeys, but some people weren't so lucky, having bags of fruit torn apart. Feeding the monkeys isn't entirely forbidden, but they are fully aware of being shortchanged and will come after stingy tourists.

Given the steepness of the stairs, we were both taken with the workers rebuilding parts of the walkway. The amount of effort they put in to improve the walkway is astounding. They work to replace the unstable stones with more sturdy cement blocks, carrying two or more blocks or bags of sand on wooden shelves strapped to their backs with woven horse hair. Only one side of Emei Shan is accessible by bus, so they walk the stairs to get to the work site, stopping to be weighed (presumably, they are paid by how much they carry), and stopping to rest their load on a long T-shaped stick they carry and use as a walking stick. At one point oun our trip, we passed some workers leading five horses. Seeing the knobby knees of these animals buckle under the weight they were carrying as they descended the stairs was heartbreaking.

Emei Shan is also littered with souvenir, food, and snack stalls all along the path. A 16 oz bottle of water (shui) would cost 2 yuan in town, but on the mountain, it's 6. We brought along 4.5 L with us, but still had to buy a few bottles on the second day. In addition to all the shopping opportunities on the mountain, Emei Shan is also peppered with Monasteries which provide beds for weary hikers at night. We spent two nights on the mountain, the first at the Magic Peak Monastery after climbing for 11 hours that day. The Monastery was dark and musty, but the people, mostly droves of elderly women who make up the majority of the mountain's visitors, were quite warm and welcoming. On the second day, after 6 or 7 hours of walking, we reached the Golden Summit. The vistas from the top, as well as from the many pauses along the way, were sublime. The mountain was slowly swallowed in a sea of clouds as we gained elevation. At the Summit, the backside of the mountain drops off in a sheer cliff rising out of the clouds. On our third day, we woke early to see the sun rise out of the clouds. The overcast morning prevented the sunrise from exhibiting it's full glory, but it was a nice way to start the day. The sunrise on Emei Shan's Golden Summit is considered to be one of the mountain's four blessings.

Given that walking down thousands of steps is actually much more taxing on the body than walking up, we opted to walk just to the bus stop so we could catch an early bus back to Chengdu to pick up our belongings and head south. After running a few errands around Chengdu (including running to a local art/office supply store so I could buy Chinese rice paper), we were on our last overnight train in China: hard sleeper to Guilin in Guangxi Province in southeast China where we look forward to limestone peaks, rice terraces, and easy passage to Hong Kong on July 20.