Why Mount Emei is worth the climb
Picture this: you wake before dawn, ride a cable car to a peak at 3,099 metres, and stand in front of a golden temple hall and a gilded statue of Samantabhadra as tall as a ten-storey building. Around you, a white sea of clouds pours over the valleys below. When the first light hits, the whole cloud field turns gold and orange — the same scene Chinese pilgrims have crossed the country to witness for well over a thousand years.
This is Mount Emei (峨眉山 Emeishan) — one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China, in Sichuan Province, about 150 km southwest of Chengdu. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for both its culture and its nature (listed together with the Leshan Giant Buddha next door). More than thirty old Buddhist temples are scattered across its slopes, the forest is dense and ancient, and the summit is high enough to look down on the clouds.
What sets Emei apart from an ordinary tourist mountain is that it is a place of pilgrimage and a nature reserve at once: the golden temple and sea of clouds at the top, old temples and waterfalls along the way, and Baoguo Temple plus hot springs at the base to soak away the day's climbing. Most people stay one night to see it properly, and very often pair it with the Leshan Giant Buddha just down the road.
