China - Mount Emei (Sichuan Province)

Upon our return from the Giant Buddha we went to BaoGuo, where we stayed at the BaoGuo Monastery. At 6:00 am we took a bus to Mount Emei. It was freezing cold, foggy and the visibility was pretty much zero. There was still some snow and the trail was icy in some spots which made it quite treacherous to hike. Of course some creative shop keepers where already at work selling socks and bamboo shoes to help with the ice.

Just before we entered the gondola for the final ascent up to Mount Emei. We took this photo with some snow in the background.

Some more "Chinglish" signs for a little chuckle.



Really? Quite frankly the sign could not be more true, but I do not want to start ranting about the bathrooms now.

When we returned with the Gondola back to the valley we took another bus and then hiked up a small creek valley towards the HangChungPing Monastery. These workers were carrying slabs of rock up the mountain for a construction project.

Somehow this hike up this creek valley reminded me of the Black Forrest. It felt good to be in the nature, very few people around.

Well, we do not have monkeys in the Black Forrest, but there were plenty here. At some point they blocked the trail completely waiting to be fed by the tourists.

Once up the mountain we saw some more monkeys around the monastery. Some of them actually were carrying around their little babies at all times.

The HangChunPing Monastery were we stayed for the night. The last ascend was 1200 steps to reach the monastery gate.

The next morning on our hike back to the valley we encountered the workers again, carrying construction material up the hill. These rock slabs must weigh around 30 to 40 kilos.

A construction or better demolition site along the trail. No machines or power tools were used, these guys demolish the concrete structure with chisel and hammer only.

Somehow after all the busy cities we have been visiting it felt unreal to be in nature. It was beautiful, so please forgive if I have to show it once more ....

On our hike we encountered another construction site. It was interesting to watch these guys unloading these heavy concrete slabs without the help of a crane.

Trash and pollution .... it is really a big problem in China. Even in this remote mountain village people just dump there trash. In the past that was probably OK since everything was somehow organic, but now with all the plastic packaging it doesn't work anymore. Unfortunately old habits are hard to get rid of.

More "mode of transportation". I saw this guy transporting this huge piece of plywood on his bike.

And one more mode of transportation .... taken in the train by Kata, with Kieran and Katarina in our "soft" sleeper compartment, the first night train I actually was able to sleep a little.