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Home Travel in Sichuan Mount Emei
Mount Emei

   Mount Emei
Mount Emei
(é méi shān 峨眉山) is located in Leshan City (lè shān shì 乐山市) of Sichuan Province (sì chuān shěng 四川省). It is one of the four Buddhist holy mountains in China, as the other three are the Wutai Mountain (wǔ tái shān 五台山) in Jiangxi Province (jiāng xī shěng 江西省), Mount Putuo (pǔ tuó shān 普陀山) in Zhejiang Province (zhè jiāng shěng 浙江省) and Jiuhua Mountain (jiǔ huá shān 九华山) in Anhui Province (ān huī shěng 安徽省). Because the shape of the mountain is like the eyebrow of a beautiful girl, the mountain is called Emei. The rich Buddhist culture connotation and the unique natural scenery make the mountain enlisted in the world heritage by the UNESCO in 1996.

Cloud Sea
Sunrise
Buddha Light

Mount Emei covers an area of 154 square kilometers. The main peak, namely, Wanfo Peak (wàn fó dǐng 万佛顶), is 3079.3 meters above sea level, 2500 to 2600 meters towering above the Chengdu plain (chéng dōu píng yuán 成都平原). The mountain is lofty and high, covered with luxurious vegetations, which makes the mountain elegant at the same time. In the early years, climbing the Mount Emei is a challenge for the common climbers. However the cable car constructed in the recent years makes climbing a easy thing. You can enjoy the unique scene of sunrise, the Cloud Sea (yún hǎi 云海), Buddha light (fó guāng 佛光) and Holy Light (shèng guāng 圣光).

   Golden Summit
The sunrise is very varied, but optimally begins with the ground and sky being in the same dark purple, soon showing rosy clouds, followed by a bright purple arc and then a semicircle where the sun is coming up. The Clouds Sea includes several cloud phenomena, e.g. clouds appearing in the sky above, in addition to the regular clouds beneath.

Statue of SamantabhadraStanding on the Duguang Flat (dǔ guāng tái 睹光台) of Golden Summit (jīn dǐng 金顶), when the sunshine shining on the tiled clouds, you can see the bright ring with seven colors, which is called Buddha Light. It is said that you will get good luck if your shadow is in the light. At night, you can see the mysterious light in the deep valley, which is called Holy Light.

On the Golden Summit, there is a gold-plating bronze statue of Samantabhadra (pǔ xián pú sà 普贤菩萨), which is 48 meters high and 660 tons. It is the highest gold Buddha statue in the world. The statue if decorated with granite relief on the base, which makes it delicate.

Due to the superior environment on Mount Emei, you will likely see dozens of monkeys who can often be viewed taking food from tourists. Local merchants sell nuts for tourists to feed the monkeys. The monkeys are not scared when they see people, but play with tourists, which bring much fun to the tourists.

Monkeys in Mount EmeiMount Emei
Location:
37 kilometers away from Leshan City
Admission fee: CNY 150
Opening hours:
6:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. (May 1 to October 7)
7:00 a.m. – 5:50 p.m. (October 8 to April 30)
Transportation:
1. You can take bus at Xinnanmen Bus Station (xīn nán mén chē zhàn 新南门车站) in Chengdu City (chéng dū shì 成都市) to Mount Emei, which will take you about 2 hours.
2. Or you can take bus at the Central Bus Station (zhōng xīn chē zhàn 中心车站) and Xiaoba Bus Station (xiāo bà chē zhàn 肖坝车站) in Leshan City to Mount Emei, which will take you about 30 minutes.