Monday, January 5th, 2004 – Day 321
I was awake by 6.30am anyway with many people coming and going in the corridors. Monks get up early. The managed had given me a flash of hot water and a basin to wash myself. IT was freezing. I have never been so cold in a place. At around 7.00am, I made my way to the nearby Golden Summit. Basically its two floors up from the Jinding monastery.
At 3077 meters, the magnificent Golden Summit Temple is as far as most hikers make it. It’s the highest peak. Covered with glazed tile and surrounded by white marble balustrades, it now occupies an area of 1,695 square meters. The original temple had a bronze-coated roof, which is how it got the name “Golden Top” as well as “Golden Summit”. The true summit of the mountain is a further hour away at Wanfoding, the Ten Thousand Buddha summit. Anyway, I was expecting lads up tourists to come. Usually they start at 3.45am from town and after 2 hours, take the cable car up. The monastery was dark and empty. No one was selling an entrance ticket.
Anyway, I waited there in a corner hiding from the wind and cold. I watched as the sun slowly rose. It was cool and reminded me when I went to Paucartambo in Peru to see the sun rise.
Its the same as at this point you are above the clouds and as you watch out the sun climbs above them. Therefore you re looking down on the clouds. Its cool and the whole time there were less than half a dozen tourists. I was led to expect like in summer there would be thousands of people. Maybe its because the cable car seems to be out of order. There were a few monks about feeding the squirrels and small birds.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Mt. Emei – Day Two – Sunrise (05-01-2004)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Mt. Emei – Day Two – Sunrise (05-01-2004)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Mt. Emei – Day Two – Sunrise (05-01-2004)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Mt. Emei – Day Two – Sunrise (05-01-2004)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Mt. Emei – Day Two – Sunrise (05-01-2004)
I left for the cable car at 9.00am but found it closed. I did not want to walk back the 7.5km to Jilin Hall, but I had no choice. The walking conditions were as bad as yesterday. It was a sheer ice slide down hill. There was a guard railing on some parts which I grabbed onto. Other times, I left the ice path and walked on snow. Other times, I simply slid down on my arse. It was nasty. I passed one Chinese couple who were sliding on there bum all the way down and were scared shitless. It was OK when when you took confident small steps so that my ice spikes grabbed the ground. Baby pussy footing footing around would only lead to a fall.
I was down in 50 minutes to the bus station. I paid 30 Yuan for a ticket back to Baoguo Si. It took a while to get gong. The roads were dangerous and we slipped and slided over the first 10km. We had chains on our back tyres. A 4X4 jeep nearby crashed into us as it lost control on the road. It took 2 hours to get back to down.
I went to the bus station and purchased a ticket back to Chengu for 35 Yuan. It was to leave at 12.30pm. I went to teddys Cafe for a bite to eat. It was nice to try something different from what I have been having. I had pancake with honey again and fried rice with pork and vegetable. Expensive but nice.
The bus back was slow as we kept stopping for people. The bus was in uproar when all the stops. It took nearly 4 hours to get back when it should have taken just over two. At least they showed two good movies with English subtiles on the TV. The driver must have been a fan of Chow Yun-Fat. The first film was the some what dated A Better Tomorrow which launched John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat.
The second film was the recent hit Internal Affairs. Its brings the genre bang up to date and is an excellent film.
In summary, the climb to the summit of Mt. Emei is a grueling, straightforward ascent up a wide and sturdy path. The hike takes most people a full day up and a full day back down; the monasteries along the way and at the top offer overnight accommodations for travelers at reasonable prices. The weather was poor. Misty and foggy for the first 2/3, then snow and ice as well as fog in the last 1/3. It will take you at least 10 hours to get there. A full day with few breaks. The monkeys aren’t really dangerous, but it’s probably better to appease them.
Anyway, I was back in chengdua and decided to head to the train station ASAP to get a ticket to Kumning as there is always a big demand for that destination. I made a mistake of taking a bus in that direction only to find it verred of in another direction. I took another which I believed would take me close. It did but I did not know it. We passed it on a parnell street and I started walking in a wrong direction. It was 1.5 hours since I arrived so I took a rickshaw. It was from a woman in her 40’s and I felt sorry for her, carrying me around up hill and then ahving to get off and push the bike to get started again. Tough work for a lady getting and all for 5 Yan (.50 cent). Anyway within 12 minutes I was at the station.
Its a massive building and there were thousands of people trying to get in. Once in, there are about 4 halls and each had about 3-4,000 thousand people waiting for their train to be called. If you don’t like crowds, you would hate this place. I found out that they dont sell tickets here but at another massive building nearby. There are about 40 booths but there were masses of people trying to buy tickets. Luckily a new booth opened and I ran for it. It was a painless affair to buy a hard sleeper ticket to Kumning for 208 Yuan (20 Euro). It will take about 19 hours and it leaves at 1.44pm tomorrow.
Good Guardian article about Gym Life in the UK and the SARS case here in CHINA HAS BEEN CONFIRMED> Its all over the news.
I did little the rest of the evening. I had a beer at the hostel and was too tired to shower.
As the capital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, also known as the “city of eternal spring,” is one of the most pleasant and relaxed cities in China. Though it was founded over 2,000 years ago, the city did not gain prominence until it became the eastern capital of the N?nzh?o Kingdom in the 8th century. By the time the Mongols swept through in 1274, Kunm?ng, or Yachi as it was then known, was enough of a flourishing town to have attracted the attention of Marco Polo, who described it as a “very great and noble” capital city. The city’s bloodiest period occurred during the Qing dynasty, with a series of Muslim rebellions. In the late 19th century, foreign influence appeared in the form of the French, who built a narrow-gauge rail line to Vietnam still in use today. During World War II, Kunm?ng played an important role as the terminus of a major supply line (the famous Burma Road) in the Allies’ Asian theater of operations.
Today, Kunm?ng’s wide streets, towering office blocks, and giant shopping centers all convey the impression of a modern, 21st-century city. Sadly, much of the development of recent years, most of it on account of the 1999 International Horticultural Exhibition, has come at the expense of traditional wooden dwellings and artisan workshops, which have all been razed in the process, taking much of the city’s original charm with them. Still, Kunming remains a highly enjoyable and relaxing place to spend a few days even if its offerings do not match some of Yunnan’s other treasures. A subtropical location and high elevation (1,864m/6,213 ft.) give Kunming a temperate climate year-round. Its days are filled with sunshine, making almost any time good for a visit, though the balmy months of September and October are especially fine.