Mount Emei

Mount Emei is one of 4 Buddhist holy mountains in China and a site of pilgrimage for many hundreds of years. We are staying in a Buddhist monastery at the foot of the mountain and have a day to walk on the mountain.

We are all expecting and hoping that this will be the first part of the trip that feels more remote – the description of a Buddhist monastery to stay in and a holy mountain to roam on sounds like it; but as we drive from the Big Buddha towards our destination it isbuilt up all the way, with major construction of roads and high rise buildings going on. We drive through the city of Emershan, and past the site of the largest Buddhist monastery in China, which is still under construction. The site extends for at least half a mile along the main road and contains a hotel and shops as well as temples. We are still well within the built up area of Emershan when Harvey, our guide, tells us that we will be arriving in 5 minutes – this is nothing like we were expecting. However beyond the main city the buildings blend into a strip of restaurants, hotels and tourist shops and our bus takes us to the furthest point just beyond this and it begins to seem a little more remote.

We are met at the monastery by Patrick, a local guide, who shows us to our rooms and around the site. We are staying in authentic rooms which open onto a balcony overlooking a courtyard within the monastery, which contains a garden with incense burners, candles and the occasional monk doing a meditation walk.

 

Photo 1 of Lesley on the monastery balcony

Photo 2 of monastery garden

Photo 3 of monastery corridor

Photo 4 of Buddhas

Photo 5 of candles

Photo 6 of inscription in the monastery

Photo 7 of monastery windows and roof

Photo 8 of kneeler

 

In the evening Peggy and I wander down to take a look at the strip of restaurants nearby. There are the usual places but we are intrigued by a collection of side streets where there are numerous eateries where the cooking and eating is happening outside. The ingredients are piled in bowls and there are also skewers of vegetables and meat that are then barbecued.

 

Photo 9 of outdoor restaurant

 

Most of the restaurants also have fish tanks with fish swimming around and bowls of seafood like small crabs that keep making a bid for freedom. There are also cages containing rabbits and chickens. As we watch a girl from the restaurant scoops a fish out of the tank in a net and flings it vigorously onto the stone pavement. While it is stunned she takes it to a sink and de-scales it and then picks up a knife and guts it. We don't hang around to wait until someone orders rabbit.

 

Photo 10 of live ingredients

 

The next day we are free to wander on the mountain. Elliott, Lesley, Peggy and I decide to get up early in an attempt to get up on the mountain before the crowds. It is not difficult to wake up early, as the monks act as an early morning call when they start chanting and banging drums at 5am. We take the first bus part way up the mountain to the base of a cable car station and walk up the path from there. There is a network of paved paths and steps – not unlike in Nepal – that connect the monasteries and settlements. Porters carry heavy loads on wooden racks on their backs. Cleverly the rack is designed with a wooden sick that they can use to prop and take the weight off the load to rest and when they are ready to climb again the stick becomes a walking stick.

 

Photos 11 and 12 of porters

 

It is uphill for about an hour to get to the first monastery and our plan to beat the crowds has not worked, as they have all taken the cable car and are there before us!

 

Photo 13 of monastery courtyard

 

There are some small children posing for photos in front of a statue. The Chinese love to pose for their photo and these children are just the same, putting their hands around their faces and smiling sweetly.

As we walk on we pass a small boy sitting by the side of the path. He is making and selling decorative lanterns and crickets that he has made from palm leaves.

 

Photo 14 of boy selling palm leaf decorations.

 

Further on there is a collection of porters of a different kind waiting for work. They have sedan chairs and will carry tourists up and down the steps for a fee.

 

Photo 15 and 16 of porters waiting for work.

 

We start to go down steps and there is a man coming towards us carrying two baskets on the ends of a wooden pole across his shoulders. We move to the side of the path to make way for him. Elliott stands on the stone slope at the edge of the steps and slips and falls. He turns very pale and holds his wrist. It is a peculiar shape and is obviously broken. We lie him down on the path and cause a bit of a blockage for the parade of Chinese tour groups going past. Fortunately Peggy has a medical background and a long scarf to make a sling for his arm. A porter with a sedan chair appears by our side and is keen to carry Elliot. However by this time he is feeling much better and would prefer to walk. We go back to the cable car station and then take the bus back to the town where Harvey and Patrick meet us and take Elliott to hospital. 3 hours later he is back in the monastery with his arm in a splint. he should be able to continue the trip and his onward travels to Cambodi and Vietnam.

 

Photo 17 of Lesley and Elliot (with broken wrist) in the cable car