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Album: By Country | By Date China | July 2001 < Prev: Emei Shan Part 1 | Next: Chengdu to Xian to Beijing >
Travelogue: By Country | By Date China | July 2001  

July 2001 - Emei Shan Part 2

From the lovely (and, shall we say, "rustic") Elephant Washing Pool Monastery to the Golden Summit

Evening at the Monastery On monkey patrol. The kids enjoyed chasing the monkeys around the outside of the monastery and occasionally through the monastery's halls. At least the front of the place is being reconstructed. We watched a stonecarver working on a pair of neat stone lions that will grace the front. In the meantime, one enters through a muddy courtyard. Smiling Buddha. Morning view
A monk watching one of us depart Pausing to admire the scenery before facing the stairs again. Hot tofu is a popular snack along the trail. This little girl's mother tied a string to the leg of a little vole, so the girl (and the cat) could have "fun" with it.
Nice view. Emei Shan is really quite steep and the path several times threaded its way across very narrow saddles edged by sheer cliffs. The tools of the porters. Some of Emei's cliffs as seen from Thundering Cave Terrace Looking out from Thundering Cave Terrrace. At least that's where we think we were - what our map lacked in detail it made up for dramatic coloring and language. Here's an example of the language: Mount Emei is a celebrated Tourist atyraction well-known for its Buddhism . . . with a chain of towering teaks."
Jieyin Temple (we think). This is taken from the ticket office for the cable car to the top. The Chinese seem to think no tourist attraction is complete without a cable car ride. Emei has two of them and a monorail. (We have read that even the Great Wall has a cable car ride. With luck, we'll never find out whether that is true.) In fairness, most of our hike was far from roads and cable cars. Buddha at (or near) Jieyin Hall Altar
Pilgrims and incense at Golden Summit Temple Top of Golden Summit. Golden Summit Temple Bell at Golden Summit
Lighting incense, or at least playing with stuff other people have lit, at Golden Summit Another view of a Chinese medicine stand. Misty view from Jieyin Hall Misty view
Elephant and lotus Beads Back along the river in Chengdu. We again got on a bus having only the vaguest idea where we were headed. The driver assured us all would be well, or maybe he was just saying he would be well if we paid our fare and got on his bus. In any event, the bus stopped at a city bus stand, the driver said "28! 28!" and drove off. We should have followed his advice and hopped on bus number 28, instead we decided to take a taxi, figuring we could be certain we would get to our hotel. Trouble was, we didn't have anything showing the name of the hotel in Chinese characters and only knew the English translation of the name. Finally, we found a slip of paper with the name of one of Chengdu's fanciest hotels on it. We figured we could walk from there. But, we we got downtown, we were able to direct the driver to the hotel without a problem. Bus number 28 would have stopped two blocks away for a third the price.