Emei Shan

Our only reason for visiting Emei town was to climb a mountain.

01) Day 1 - Emei Shan

Emei Shan stands at 3099m at its peak. We climed to the Golden Summit which is at 3077.

Day 1 - we left at 8am roughly and I am embarassed to say that we only started on the mountain proper at about 9am.....we got lost trying to find the start.......<blush>

The mountain climb consists of steps. Thousands of them! It was really tough work. It took us 9hrs to reach our bed for the night - a Monastery at about the halfway mark. We were shattered.

Day 2 - W had a bit of a lie in and left the Monastery at about 10:30am after a breakfast of noodles with egg and spring onions.  This was a much easier day in terms of climbing but I was more exhausted than the previous day by the time we reached our next Monastery lodgings. I don't think that I could've walked any more.

02) We stayed at this Monastery on our first night

I should mention at this point that we were joined on our walk by lots of pilgrims, since this is a sacred place for Bhuddists. Most of the pilgrims were Chiese ladies in their 60's and 70's, probably carrying as much weight as we were and making it look very easy. My Nan would've been proud to see that.

What is probably more astonishing are the people who are maintaining the mountain steps. There are men carrying slabs of stone, bags of cement or stacks of iron roof tiles up and down the mountain steps. These are really heavy loads and their calf muscles are a sign of the effort which goes into their daily routine. So are the bruises on their shoulders from the straps on their rudimentary wooden backpacks. If I was wearing one I would take my hat off to them. Don't think that you have had a hard day.

03) Scarey Monkey

Day 3 - We got up at 3:45am and left for the final 1 1/2 hour climb to the summit to see the sun rise. Not so spectacular but it felt like a real achievement.

We didn't walk the full 52km back down though. We allowed ourselves a ride in the cable car, a mere 20min walk to the bus station and a bus to ferry us the rest of the way back to our bed. We were back in time for breakfast.

04) High altitude chickens

05) Lunchtime breather - day 2

06) 6am Sunrise at the Golden Summit day 3

07) Golden Summit

08) Breakfast at the top

09) Chin chats with Ellie

10) Statue of Bhudda at the top

11) A sense of perspective