Emeishan Hiking Planning

There are more than one ways to hike Mt. Emei. The most leisure visit to Mt. Emei will involve inevitable walking for a minimum of 1.5km+1.5km total.

The usual tourist visit route is as follows:

Start by Baoguosi or Huangwan Tourist center and use tourist bus to get to Leidongping Car Park, and from there walk 1.5km to Jieyindian Cable Car Sation to use cable car to Golden Summit. After visit at the summit return the same way. Some visitors will combine another visit to Wannian Temple also using cable car on the way down by tourist bus arrive at Wannian Car Park and then cable car to Wannian Temple and same way back or to walk back to Wuxiangang Car Park via Qingyin Pavilion and then use bus from there.

The above way of visiting will take one full day's time.

We grade Emei Hiking into three different levels in terms of distance, steepness and altitude gain/loss.

Leisure-Paced Hiking

The lesiure-paced hiking is relatively shorter and not always easier. It takes less time and also gives you the chance to immerse yourself in this Buddhist shrine within limited time.

There are three sections of leisure hiking one can do.

First one is the walking from Wannian Car Park to Wannian Temple, this part is 2km and with gradual ascent from 810m to 1010m at Wannian Temple. Note this part can be replaced by a cable car ride.

Second option is to arrive Wannian Car Park by the cable car, and from there walk for 3.7km to Wuxiangang Car Park.

The above 2 can be combined if you have sufficient time.

Third option is harder. This section is from Leidongping to Golden Summit from 2430m to 3050m for 3.7km total. It is not very long but it is steep. Although you can always choose to walk down since most part of this section can also be replaced by a cable car ride.

The above sections are usually with relative more other visitors since these walkings are popular. These walkings won't gain your chance of encoutering monkeys but will give you chance to see the nature of Emei.

Medium-Paced Hiking

Mt. Emei Medium-paced hiking takes a minimum of 1 day's time from Wannian Temple to Leidongping Car Park. It is total 9.2km walking from 1010m to 2430m. This hiking will require a sleep overnight in the mountain. This walk is hard and it gives you chance to see many small temples and big temples along the way.

Challenging-paced Hiking

A challenging-paced Hiking of Mt. Emei starts from Qingyin Pavilion (Wuxiangang Car Park) and walk for a total of 14km from 600m to 2430m at Leidongping. It requires a minimum of 1 day's time and sometimes it takes more than i day's time for some. Most beautiful hiking of Emei with streams, small gorges and basically the lower/middle parts of natural highlights of Emei.

From the map, you can tell how far it is for each section of hiking. Which sections are worth walking? well they all are worth walking.

For people who wants to walk the biggest distance, you can choose to start from Baoguo Temple and via Chunyang Temple, Qingyin Pavilion, Xianfeng Monastery, Elephant Bathing Pool to Leidongping Car Park then to the summit, a total of 24.3km and elevation gain around 2400m. You can choose to stay overnight at Leidongping or Elephant Bathing Pool.

For people who wants to walk the least to get to the summit, you can choose to start from Wannian Temple and from there it is only 12.9km to the summit with elevation gain at around 2000m.

If you are good at walking down than walking up, you can use the tourist bus to get to the summit first and then walk from there.

If you really enjoying walking, you can choose to walk up from Xianfeng Monastery and then coming down from Wannian Temple with both ways walking.