Thursday, September 24, 2015

CD/成都/07: Mt. Emei 峨眉山 2/2

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

Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山

 

got to the Peak by 8:40am

not getting any better

Mt. Emei 峨眉山

 

that was considered quite okay

Mt. Emei 峨眉山

as the next minute

it could go this way

not to mention the drizzle

which went on and on

Mt. Emei 峨眉山

 

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…

Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山 

 

making our way down by 10am and

guess what

the sky was starting to clear up

Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山Mt. Emei 峨眉山

 

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

Mt. Emei 峨眉山

 

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

Mt. Emei 峨眉山

 

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

  1. The Five Great Mountains
    1. East Great Mt (Dōngyuè): Tài Shān
    2. West Great Mt (Xīyuè): Huà Shān
    3. South Great Mt (Nányuè): Héng Shān (Hunan)
    4. North Great Mt (Běiyuè): Héng Shān (Shanxi)
    5. Center Great Mt (Zhōngyuè): Sōng Shān
  2. The Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism
    1. Wǔtái Shān
    2. Éméi Shān
    3. Jiǔhuá Shān
    4. Pǔtuó Shān
  3. The Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism
    1. Wǔdāng Shān
    2. Lónghŭ Shān
    3. Qíyūn Shān
    4. Qīngchéng Shān

from Wiki page - The Sacred Mountains of China