Photo Essay: Climbing the ‘Sacred Buddhist’ EMEI SHAN
Photo Essay: Climbing the ‘Sacred Buddhist’ EMEI SHAN
‘Shan’ is Chinese for ‘mountain’. On Monday afternoon my wife and I joined another woman and her daughter along with a driver who took us a few hours away westward in Sichuan Province, not too far from Tibet, so we could climb a mountain that is over 10,000 ft high, and then to see the giant Buddha of Leshan. In this photo essay I will take you on a tour of what we did and saw at the mountain. The photo essay about the giant Buddha will be posted soon as well.
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1. Approaching the foothills we witnessed some exceptional views of mountains. These might not be considered special by those of you who live in or near mountains, but we enjoyed seeing them.
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1. We drove through the foothills until we reached where we had to park the car and continue in a bus part way up the mountain (due to the road being quite dangerous) to the Emei Shan Park gate, outside of which were a number of small hotels. This is the one where we had dinner (the fried sweet and sour fish was delicious) and stayed the night in rooms that were surprisingly luxurious.
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1. It rained all night but we were assured that it would be sunny the next day. When we awoke we saw that the clouds were settling on the mountain.
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1. But they quickly cleared up, and the sun was bright, although because of the altitude it was a bit cold.
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1. This is the gate into the park, and at this point it was necessary for us to start our climb.
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1. We walked past a couple of billboards, one showing a map of the park...
7. The significance of the mountain is explained in the bottom right corner of the map, which I have enlarged to be as clear as I could.
8. The forest is inhabited by Tibetan Monkeys.
9. But you must be careful with them - they will steal things out of your hand.
10. And here one is - he was so fast, my camera did not have time to focus.
11. And there he goes....
12. Looking at the next mountain.
13. Okay, here's where I started to cheat - well you didn't expect me to climb the whole 10,000 feet, did you?
14. I never trusted these things, but this one is fairly new, installed only four years ago.
15. Getting closer to the top - the clouds are below us.
16. This sacred tower crowns the mountain - almost there now.
17. In the distance to the north-west, snow-capped mountains. I was lucky that the clouds cleared enough for me to get this shot.
18. This sign greeted us at (almost) the top.
19. Another greeter - I've not seen a chipmunk for almost 10 years.
20. I passed on climbing the final 100 or so steps to the tower.
21. It wasn't a busy day - but still a lot of people.
22. Looking down.
23. Is there a tourist site without concessions? this one was for framed local butterflies.
24. And of course the usual high-priced souvenirs.
25. Sometimes the steps were relatively normal, but sometimes you had to navigate steps like these and not break your ankle.
26. But there is an alternative - for about US$25 these guys will carry you up the steps in those "stretchers". There is actually a history to their use. I walked, thank you.
That’s the end of this show. Stay tuned for the one on the Giant Buddha of Leshan.
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