9 mountains - 29.5.11 (Day 12 - Hiking up to Mt Emei)

The monastery at the foot of the mountain

I woke up once and knew I missed the soccer game. It was already 6am. I continued my dream and woke up at 8am instead!! I tried to have some bread for breakfast but it was too dry to eat much. So I decided to move on and eat later. At 9am, I'm probably the latest hiker. It was a misty day. And drizzling as well.

I passed by the tourist centered and walked in to find out that Emei Shan actually as another specialty. This was the only place in the world where you can find Bearded toad!! So named because the front of the toad's mouth are spotted with many points that looked like mustache.

From Baoguo monastery at 550m, I passed by many monasteries to reach Wannian, where the cableway station was. It was a 14km walk and took me around 4.5hours, going uphill and downhill!!

A place to burn incense!

Tomb at Luofeng

Along the way, I detoured to Luofeng hut where there was a tourist landscape spot to watch white clouds. But I could only see forest and a deserted cemetery after a long walk.

I met a couple of guys catching crickets from a hole, probably as bait to fish. Saw a water snake and smelled a lot of different plants! The sound of birds chirping was so soothing to the ears.

Just when I thought the ticket office was closed for the day, I reached the counter. They even took a picture of you to make sure you were the rightful ticket holder!

Met a Sichuan girl when I was resting at a hut. She was 20 and often walked up alone, and stayed at Qingyin monastery about 11km away.

I came back to the main road and heard a Cantonese song from Eason, Yu Wo Tong Zai! Thought a local misguided me but met two young girls to confirm the right path.

Sweet potato, dumpling
and rice cake for lunch!

It probably rain last night and made the steps very slippery, especially during descend. At Qingyin monastery, many tour groups were seen. Shortly after I reached Wannian monastery. From here onwards, it was much quieter with only hikers around.

A hardworking local!

At 1200m, it started to get very windy. I wore my jacket. Around 2:46pm it drizzled again. I was greeted with more uphill and downhill!!

View from Emei Shan!

Along the way, I passed by a group of youngsters and reached at one point where I met a guy and a couple. The couple were in distress. The lady's backpack was grabbed away by the monkeys!! She lost everything including her wallet and identity card. They were stranded there. I walked on to try my luck. It was kind of scary after hearing their experience cause I did not know what to expect. A short while later, I encountered a huge ape. Before I could think, he just walked over, grabbed my shorts and jacket to try to unzip my sling bag!! The guy came to my rescue with a stick. He was shouting and hitting the stick very hard to make loud noise but the monkey didn't seemed to be affected at all!! We retreated back to the resting area where we met earlier.

Shops along the hike to the peak!

We didn't know what to do next. Soon the group of 5 youngsters I met reached as well. We met a group of local coming down from the same path. They were suggesting to make noises with the stick and shout them away. I bought one for self-protection immediately.

Angry monkey!!!

And so, the 7 of us dared the path again in a group with two guys in the front and two at the rear. We yelled and hit the sticks very hard to scare the monkeys away. There were many of them. They tried to surround us! We didn't know how many!! We managed to create a path for us but when we walked pass, the monkeys tried to attack from behind. The guy and me supporting at the rear were so tensed!! We all shouted until we ran out of breath!! We survived the scare in the end!! Didn't know if there were more monkeys ahead, we moved in close proximity while still hitting the sticks for another 10 minutes or so. The experience was pretty thrilling and reminded me of the movie Congo!!
And so we continued going up and up and down and down and up and up again for 21.5km from 1020m to 2430m!!!

Almost reaching the destination!

That concluded my 11 hours of craziness for 35.5km, ascending almost 2000m above sea level!! Definitely surpassed the toughest day of my Shikoku pilgrimage! The last 2 hours were really a torture. Although I had one more sweater on, I was in short and the drizzle all the way up made the walk very chilly!!

Along the way, we stopped a couple of times for some short hot snack.
Finally at 8pm, we reached our destination. Surprisingly the hotel wasn't that expensive compared to other mountains I'd been. A private room was rmb120 but the youngsters managed to bring down to rmb100 instead. And two could occupied a room to cut the cost further!! We had our dinner together. I needed three bowls of rice to replenish the lost energy!! The youngsters were students and going to graduate soon. A couple of them were in Phd!!!

After dinner, we were back in our room! I needed a hot shower so badly to warm myself up. After that, I was all wrapped up in warm clothes. My roommate, FeiPeng, from Nanjing, even slept topless!! We watched the match-making TV program till 11pm before we switched off the lights.

The students were planning to start the hike at 5am tomorrow or 8am if it were to rain!