A quick glance on
how to get to the peak
the tourist version
| From-To | Estimated time | Ticket | in RMB |
| 1. Hotel – Main entrance | 3 min via bus | Entrance | 190 |
| 2. Main entrance – mid-hill | 1.5 hour | 2-way bus | 90 |
| 3. Mid-hill – Cable car stn | 30 min walk | - | - |
| 3. Cable car stn – Peak stn | 3 min | 2-way cable | 120 |
| 4. Peak stn – The Peak | 15 min walk | - | - |
| Optional | |||
| 5. Mid-hill – Wan Nian Temple | 30 min walk / Cable car | 2-way car | 120 |
| 6. Mid-hill – monkey area | not-really-sure | tourist cart | 20+ |
of course the other version
would be the free-and-easy hiker’s version
like 3 days 2 night?
we booked the 2-way bus ticket in #2
from the hotel
which costs 160 RMB instead of 90 RMB
which is also inclusive of
- morning call at 4am
- breakfast & lunch
- tour-guide service
so we were at the main entrance
before 5am to catch the earliest bus
in facts there were quite a lot of folks
I bet most people took the tour package
from the hotel we were staying,
there were already 20+
the ticket office was not even opened
basically everyone was standing outside
in pretty heavy RAIN!!
took the 1.5 hour bus trip
sound asleep basically
despite the winding journey
8am, mid-hill
on the way to the cable car station
under that kind of weather
thank goodness it wasn’t that cold
got to the Peak by 8:40am
not getting any better
that was considered quite okay
as the next minute
it could go this way
not to mention the drizzle
which went on and on
the four features of Mt. Emei
the sea of cloud(雲海)
the gleaming Buddha(佛光)
the sun rise or at least the sunshine(日出)
the holy light, that’s for night time(聖燈)
I thought I could at least see one of them
most probably the first two
but…
making our way down by 10am and
guess what
the sky was starting to clear up
there were 2 options available
for the second half of the tour after lunch
#5 as above – to Wan Nian Temple(萬年寺)
#6 as above – to the Monkey area with the tour guide
I took the third option
left the tour group after lunch
the other 5 who left were like 70+
3 old men and a couple
kinda cool if I can still travel like them
if I ever live that old
the tour guide asked me to
help them out to see them
getting on the right bus
but seemed like they know better than me
that’s actually my first time of
signing up a day-trip package in China
with mixed results
the tour guide of ours
in a way pretty fine as
she wasn’t exactly guiding
she left us to go free and easy
did a quick explanation on the bus
collected some money and
she hopped on to another bus half way
basically most of the time
the explanation was on payment too
nothing much on the attraction itself
but for the old folks
this wasn’t good at all
we were left on our own
most of the time
what she did was to collect money and
buy tickets on behalf
after distribution,
okay, see you there on XX a.m.
and she had 50 members all to herself
that’s way too out of proportion
2-hour bus journey back to Chengdu
the bus terminal is directly located at the foot
the other option is high-speed rail
stuck in a jam and it took us 4 hours
to sum up the
2d/1n Leshan/Mt. Emei trip
3000m, checked
another UNESCO World heritage site, checked
natural factors: rain/fog
unintentional manmade factors: lost purse/heavy jam
local factors: lousy restaurant/overworked tour guide
life is not a bed of roses
a trip is no exception of course
I actually can’t wait to
get back to Chengdu
the cosy hotel room
the spicy dumpling soup
the busy yet easy-going streets
how fast that is to
fall back to the comfort zone
at least, I may put a tick for 2 mountains from
the lists after this Chengdu trip
and pretty convinced that
that’s just a beginning of a life-long journey