Mt. Emei Challenging Hike - 3 days

Today we will start from Chengdu and after 2.5 hours' drive we arrive at the base of Mt. Emei at Baoguo Monastery where we start to walk at the lower range of Emei Mountain after a visit to the old monastery. The walking will follow the ancient pilgrimage trail of Emei that connects the temples including Leiyin Monastery, Chunyang Temple, Shengshui Temple, Zhongfeng Monastery and then to Qinyin Pavilion. The hiking all the way will be mostly on paved stairs. There are stalls of shops selling drinking water and snacks along the way. We can make stops along the way to slowly orient into the hiking mode. The many trees provide shade for most of the hiking.

Today's walking is total 10.5km and you will stay overnight by Hongchunping at 1000 meters. Today's walking is not on very steep terrain but rather ups and downs. Before we arrive today's overnight place we will pass the monkey zone where we likely will see monkeys of Emei. Hongchunping is a super quiet monastery and also a big one in Mt. Emei. Sleeping by the actual monastery in Emei is one of the cool things to do while traveling here. Unlike the usually busy and crowded temples by the usual busy touristy part of Emei such as Baoguo, Wannian and Golden Summit, the quiest monasteries such as Hongchunping shows a more real charactor of Buddhist Monasteries that is usually quiet. Hear the bell sounds and enjoy the tranquality of Hongchunping by evening and morning.

This tour involves hiking for long hours each day. Please prepare necessary items for each day's hiking such as rainproff, warm layer, sunglasses, sun cream, sun hat, walking shoes, etc. Mt. Emei is a humid place when we hike we sweat a lot. Please prepare extra base layer for each day. There is no road access to the lodges for each night so evrerthing we need to carry by our own. Therefore you are recommended to pack light and take what's only necessary for the hike.

Driving 2.5h, walking 11km, from 500m-1000m, medium pace

Overnight lodging by 1000m

Today is a long day hiking and most challenging day of this 3-day tour. First starts by the monastery it is a small section of flat part followed by going ups and downs before we arrive the steep 99 bends, a series of switchbacks of endless going up. We make multiple stops along the bends before we arrive the next monastery Xianfeng Monastery, one of the biggest monasteries in Emei. We will pay a visit to this temple and have an optional excursion trip to explore the Jiulao Cave, a big karst cave in Emei where it was turned into a shrine for Buddha. The entrance of the cave was built on the edge of the vertical moutain side.

After the break by Xianfeng we continue walk for a longer section of flat part. We will possibly encouter the next group of monkeys while going up to Yuxian Monastery, where the trail starts to get steep again. We will have a short break by Yuxian before more walking up to Jiulinggang, the intersection of trail of the classic route and the shorter route. After Jiulinggang it is more walking up to Elephant Bathing Pool(Xixiang Pond), one of the biggest monasteries in Emei. Elevation rises to 2000m. We will have a visit to this monastery before more walking up. We should leave Elephant Bathing Pool no late than 3-4pm. From Elephant Bathing Pool to Leidongping is the last bit of walking for around 2 hours continuous ascending. We shall arrive Leidongping before 6pm. Today's accommodation will have decent shower place. After arrival, take shower and relax.

Walking 12km, from 1000m-2400m, strenuous pace

Overnight lodging by 2400m

If you want to watch sunrise of Emei, you are recommended to use the cable car at early morning from above Leidongping to get to the summit before sunrise. Watching sunrise is for some a big deal because you can make a wish when sun rises at the summit of Emei. But it will also depend on the weather. Watching sunrise will require us to wake up as early as 5am or even earlier if it's in the busy season when lots of other people will also come up to use the cable car, requiring extra waiting time. If sunrise doesn't interest you, you can choose to walk up the final part of hiking for 4km to the Golden Summit from Leidongping for about 2 hours. This last 4km is also very steep and usually has more people walking this part since Leidongping is the bus terminal and most of the visitors can acccess by bus. The latter bit of the hiking is less steep. You can feel the temperature drops once we get close to the summit. The summit is at the elevation of 3000m and usually has lots of other visitors.

After visiting around the summit of its temples, views we will go back to Leidongping to catch tourist bus to go down to the base of Emei and then drive back to Chengdu. If we walked up then recommended to use the cable car down. En route driving back to Chendgu we will have a visit to Leshan Buddha Park. We should arrive the Buddha Park before 2pm and spend around 2 hours in the park to visit the Buddha before drive back to Chengdu. Tour ends.

Walking 2-10km, medium pace