25. From the Golden Peak to the Golden Monkeys of Mt. Emei

So, we are now at the peak of Mt. Emei.

For centuries, devout Buddhists have paid pilgrimage by trekking up the thousands of steps it takes to get up the mountain. The temples were initially developed, interestingly enough, about the same time as when the early Christians were starting to spread the gospels, at around 25-220 AD. Some said that having completed a pilgrimage up the mountain is already a major spiritual reward, not including the health benefits of the walk.

But for us mere tourists, we are supposed to enjoy the four famous view: The Sunrise, The Cloud Sea, the Buddhist Light, and the Saint Lamp. Each view is to be seen at a different time of the day, morning, day light, late in the afternoon, and at night, respectively. In this afternoon, we did see the sea of clouds rushing up the mountain side, slowly engulfing the silver Palace.

A few steps upward, we reached the Golden Palace, Jinding. which is now clothed in sheets of modern golden cladding. It is not clear what the real purpose of this building is all about, but it's architecture, though quite standard, also seem quite exquisite and clean.

But what was more interesting is actually behind these large temples. For there was quite a lot of construction still going on. Since the peak is at such a high altitude, the question that always arises is how do they move all the construction material up the mountain when there are no roads. The romantic answer is shown by this next photo: all material were borne on the backs of laborers. But in reality, I also saw some hoisting cables at the back but still, the last few steps were on human backs.



If you look at the picture closely, you would see that these two are standing still with their load resting on poles. What we learned was that these bearers would take up a load, walk up the flight of stairs and would always stop completely still for a few minutes to catch their breath, and then resume the way up. This of course gave us tourists a perfect picture taking opportunity!

Apparently, this is what they do every day, day in day out, for $30RMB (~$4USD) a day. That's quite a way to make a living! I suppose they are physically very fit and perhaps also spiritually satisfied for doing a religious deed.




On our walk down the mountain, we were repeatedly warned about the ZhangNie monkeys that roam the peak area. The sign here said that too. But, alas, right after I took this picture, this monkey jumped me, wanting to take away a white plastic bag that I was carrying that contained a local delicacy. I am happy to report that, thank you very much, this monkey business did not harm me nor frightened me. Indeed, I was quite pleasantly surprised by all the attention!




Mt. Emei was the last stop in our tour. We went back to Chengdu, had a great dinner, and flew back to Guangzhou the next day.

24. A Blue Road to the Golden Peak of Mount Emei

What, a blue road? You must be kidding! Just wait a minut or take a sneak peek below.

But first, after that very interesting giant buddha in LeShan in the afternoon, the bus took us west to the HongZhuShan Hotel just inside the Mount Emei (pronounced Er-May) Scenic Area. HongZhuShan used to be Generalisimo Chang-Kai-Shek's residence in the early 1930s. Since then it has been re-decorated into a very nice, quiet hotel nestled among trees and mountain sides. When we opened our room windows, we could see terraces of tea bushes grown right outside and one can taste the humidity.

An interesting modern feature in the hotel is that the corridor lights both turn on and off automatically by sensing whether there is motion in the hallways. This is a nice energy saving idea that I think also pleases hotel guests. The hotel's dining room, the Madarin Cafe, is known as one of the finest in the area. On this day, we had a real fine Szechuan dinner there but I can't really say it was spectacular.

Early next morning, we started our climb up Mt. Emei. Mount Emei is not only famous for its sceneic beauty, but when we were young, we used to read in kung-fu novels about the (usually pretty) swordswomen who are nuns and supposedly practice their swordsmenship on the mountain. No, we didn't see any, not in this twenty-first century date anyway. The entire area is of course dotted with many temples and pavilions. May be there are nuns there had we visited them.

There are several ways to climb Mt. Emei. Our tour guides were very thoughtful and arranged for us to take the easiset way up - by bus, then by cable car, ending with just a slight walk up a few stairs to the peak.



Oh yes, I did not forget the blue road. Because the drive up the mountain is through narrow lanes and is almost always foggy any time of the day, only local designated drivers are allowed to drive the tourist buses. To remind them of the fact that they are entering a 'drive-with-caution' zone, the first kilometer of the road up is painted blue. Presumably the blue color would alert the driver. We were impressed and wondered if this idea can be applied elsewhere.



The cable car was a fun ride through the clouds and mists. When one emerged at over 3000 meters (~10,000 feet) in elevation, the air was crisp and thin. Each step seems harder to walk now.

But everyone went oooh and aaah when we came to this panorama at the mountain top. It is a giant four-faced Buddha!








click to enlarge

23. A Buddha by the Rivers of LeShan

We all thought, what's left of this trip now that we have already been to the major scenic area - Jiuzhaigou? The flight from Huanglong took us back to the Kempinski Hotel in Chengdu. The next morning, our capable bus driver went south and by noon we reached the city of LeShan(乐山), situated at the confluence of three rivers.



What made LeShan famous is the Grand Buddha shown in this photo. The Buddha is so large that one can even see the location from Google Earth, just type in these coordinates: 29°32'48.77"N, 103°46'9.27"E.

The Buddha was carved into the river side rocks beginning in 713 AD, during the Tang dynasty. It took 90 years to finish this historic project. At 71 meters in height, it is the largest ancient stone-carved buddha in the world. We were told that the reason the monk HaiTong built a buddha here was because quite a few people who sailed through these treacherous waters perished. So the monk decided to invoke the powers of Buddha. Whether it has helped or not I would not know, but it certainly makes this place very interesting and very impressive.

Because this is where the waters of Min Jiang, the Dadu He, and the Qingyi Jiang collide, when we sailed on the boat, we could clearly see how the different colors of the waters got mixed mid-stream. The Min Jiang's water has a yellowish color while those of the Dadu are black. The Min runs faster while the Dadu holds it own.

The engineering of the Grand Buddha was also very sophisticated. There is a drainage system carved into the rocks so as to minimize the erosion of the statue by natural elements. It is simply amazing how the Buddha has been so well-preserved for over 2000 thousand years.


This photo shows the same kind of ferry that we were on. On top of the rocks, there is an elaborate park that includes pagodas, several temples and towers. But we did not have time to visit there. But just seeing the Grand Buddha was a real exciting visit.

Late in the afternoon, we continued on to the Emei Shan Scenic Area and checked into the very interesting Hongzhushan Hotel.