At the train station in Emeishan, the sky was clear for a final view of the Golden Summit with the huge Buddhist statue. Oh how we wished we had this weather when we were up there!

We experienced a long train day! 1.25 hours from Emeishan to Chengdu then 6.75 hours from Chengdu to Yichang.

Patrick’s wife prepared sticky rice enclosed in a bamboo leaf for a snack on the train. This is a traditional item for the Dragon Boat Festival days, which began today.

Finally we arrived in Yichang, on the Yangtze River (Three Gorges Reservoir).

A funicular brought us down to our cruise boat.

After a breakfast of porridge (noodles in vegetable broth) and tea (provided by Nathan), we set off to go down, down, down, so many stairs.

A loud noise overhead caught our attention. A giant drone was bringing supplies to a group of workers for a tile roof on a new building. That was fun to watch — we were close enough a few times to feel the wind the drone created.

This forest near Bailong Cave has a history of more than 400 years, and is just newly opened as a scenic spot. Zhilinchun’ai (“Forest of Virtues in Spring Mist”) refers to the views in spring when the mists are thickest.

69,770 (the number of words in the Lotus Sutra) phoebe zhennan trees were planted here by an eminent monk, starting around 1567. People called this area Gude Forest (“Forest of Ancient Deeds”), or more respectfully, Zhishulin (“Forest of Virtues”). Phoebe zhennan is an evergreen tree.

This tree is more than 1,000 years old, 1 meter in girth, and 40 meters in height, and is the largest phoebe zhennan tree on the mountain. It was planted at the intersection of walking paths. The hardwood from these trees in a rich brown has been used for furniture, although now it is mostly used for beads and decor.

A king’s son came here to be a monk, and the king went looking for him. When the king saw the beauty of Mount Emei, he called it a place “Free from Worldly Cares”.

Lower down, we stopped at the pavilion of two bridges, a crossroads for the many pilgrim passages on this mountain.

This rope bridge over a clear lake was near the end of this adventure.

The monastery group hopped onto a bus to meet our friends back at the hotel. Then everyone walked to a different monastery in town for lunch. We had to wash our own dishes!

Brian went with most of the group to see a Buddhist nunnery, while Clare went back to the hotel for a nap.

Fuhu Temple (Crouching Tiger Monastery) is the largest temple on Mount Emei, serving as the main nunnery on the mountain.

The temple is very large, with many halls at different levels.

We were told to find the deity, out of 500 statues, that we liked best, note the number, add our age to that number, and find the deity with the resulting number. Brian did this and purchased a card representing the deity that should reflect his characteristics at birth.

Issued by the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats, Fuhu Temple, Mount Emei

The 154th Venerable Arhat of Upright Will

He gains renown by virtue of moral conduct.

Endowed with an upright, forthright nature, he acts from sincere inner will in all affairs.

An upright heart means rectitude without flattery or duplicity — this is the root of Buddhist practice.

A single unfeigned honest heart is pure Buddha-land itself.

Those who treat all people with sincere, unswerving integrity shall attain the fruition of a Bodhisattva in the end.

Brian likes this result!

We then visited the hot pools at a large hotel complex.

Trees falling onto roads need to be promptly removed for safety.

Beneath President Xi Jinping, the text reads:

Hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, comprehensively implement the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, carry forward the great spirit of Party building, be confident in self-improvement, be upright and innovative, move forward vigorously and bravely, and unite and strive to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way and promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in an all-round way.

Perhaps not very relevant to one of China’s most sacred Buddhist areas.

Emei Shan is one of four sacred mountains in China. Today we walked to the top of the mountain, assisted by buses on winding roads and gondolas on steep slopes.

From the bus and gondola, the forest seemed thick and healthy, with a wide diversity of trees and shrubs. Unfamiliar bird calls were abundant as well.

The bus ride bumped us from side to side in our seats, and we were glad to get off. We were greeted by wild monkeys! Tibetan Macaques, are good at opening garbage cans.

Since they live in sacred Buddhist areas, they are also known as “Monkey Buddhists.” More than 300 wild monkeys of three families live in the Mount Emei Natural Ecological Monkey Area.

Too bad it was so rainy and foggy. We were up high, the Buddha statue on the edge of a cliff overlooking mountains and forests and who knows what. Nathan indicated the weather was like this about 70% of the time.

The Ten-faced Puxian Stupa stands 48 metres (157 ft) tall, weighs 660 tons and is surrounded by urns containing the ashes of Buddhists. On one side, the bodhisattva holds a ruyi , while on the other, his hands forms the Dhyana Mudra meditation gesture. Inside the stupa is a statue of Maitreya.

Inside the temple behind the Great Buddha, stood statues and other works of art. So much gold here, like the shining of human spirits.

The statues and temples here were refurbished and opened anew in 2006.

Clare felt a little sad to leave this special place. We came down through the clouds on the gondola.

After the gondola ride, many more monkeys appeared. They seemed to be expecting food from us tourists, even though signs strictly forbade feeding them.

About half our group took a much longer bus ride down to a different part of the mountain, to walk to a monastery to stay overnight. The others took a different bus back to town for sleep and some free time in the morning.

The monastery group split again, two walking up the mountain with Nathan our guide, and three taking another gondola ride to save us the uphill steps. Plenty of downhill steps came next.

Nathan told the gondola riders to go downhill until we arrived at a monastery; we thought he meant the one where we would sleep, Bailong Cave Monastery. He was thinking of the first one, at the end of the gondola. Our group of three continued downhill and downhill toward Bailong Cave Monastery, but we were puzzled by the lack of signage along the path. We were also concerned that we might miss a turn and would need to go back uphill. But we finally arrived and our comrades showed up shortly afterwards. Only dedicated Buddhists or curious tourists would brave the thousands of stairs to our goal.

The monastery dates from the Ming dynasty, but was rebuilt later. The rooms are plain, with rather hard beds, one small towel, one electric outlet, and a long walk to the toilets, which are not well maintained. We slept OK and had broth and noodles for breakfast. Other than a few workers, there was nobody there, but we were told that two monks live there.

The legend of Bailong cave begins with two serpents of the spirit world, a white snake and a green snake, who practiced Daoist mystic arts and magical abilities inside the White Dragon Cave on Mount Emei. After a thousand years, they took human form. One fell in love with a human scholar, which angered Buddhist monks. The ensuing battles ruined the cave.

This is the site of Bailong Cave, long ago collapsed.

This day, we see the (now) largest Buddha in the world. But first a little silliness.

On the way to the base of the Buddha, we stopped at a touristy town just for fun, Huanglongxi Ancient City. The restoration was well done.

When we got off the bus, a woman gave each of us wreaths of flowers to wear, fortunately, because lots of women were selling such wreaths. Since we were wearing these, purchased by Peter, the other sellers didn’t bother us.

Definitely a tourist destination. Food stalls, souvenir stalls and nice waterways abounded. People were clicking cameras with abandon.

It was easy to get free samples from the food stalls, but we did not try the bugs on sticks!

Dragons and rivers are common themes.

At the entrance to the old government offices, the lion symbolizes the gathering of information without releasing it. The lion sculpture above has no rear end!

Buddhism appears to be the most common religion in China and Buddhist symbols are in many places. Imported from India during the Han dynasty around 200 BCE, Chinese Buddhism is a distinct religion incorporating pre-existing traditions. Estimates of practicing Buddhists in China number in the 10’s of millions.

Our private bus stopped to fuel up as we got to Leshan. We bought tickets for a boat ride to see the giant Buddha from the river.

The Giant Buddha was carved out of red sandstone at the confluence of the Min River and Dadu River. Completed in 804, it took nearly 100 years to finish. This site, including the nearby Mount Emei scenic area were designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1996.

Large sign along the road to the Mount Emei scenic area.