Mount Emei Day Tour from Chengdu

Mount Emei is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it rises out of the Sichuan basin to a summit above three thousand metres. It has been a place of pilgrimage for well over a thousand years, and it is still a working religious mountain rather than a preserved one.

What strikes most visitors first is the forest. The lower slopes are dense, wet and green, with stone stairways and paths climbing through them past streams and bridges, and the temples appearing out of the trees rather than standing over them.

The monasteries are the reason the mountain matters. Monks live and work in them, services are held, and the buildings are maintained as religious sites rather than exhibits. Baoguo Temple, at the foot of the mountain, is the largest of them and the usual place to begin.

The summit is not walked to in a day. You ride a shuttle bus up to Leidongping, and from there a cable car lifts you the last stretch to the Golden Summit at 3,077 metres — the peak the mountain is known for.

What stands at the top is a gilded statue of Samantabhadra, the bodhisattva to whom Emei is dedicated, forty-eight metres high on its plinth and visible long before you reach it. Around it the mountain usually falls away into cloud: Emei makes its own weather, and the summit spends much of the year above a sea of it, which is precisely the sight people travel for.

The park entrance, the shuttle up to Leidongping and the cable car to the summit are each ticketed on the mountain and are not included here — budget for all three, and expect queues for the cable car at busy times. Emei is high and the weather up it is nothing like the weather in Chengdu, so take a warm layer and rain protection whatever the city is doing. Paths are stone, steep and often wet, so wear shoes with grip. Dress respectfully for the temples. The mountain's wild monkeys are used to people and will take food and loose bags; keep both out of sight. Cable cars and upper sections can close in bad weather, which is the mountain authority's decision and not the operator's.