Monkeys!

Another cold, wet day in Sichuan. Today’s activity is Emei Shan (Mt. Emei). Emei Shan one of the four most holy Buddhist mountains in China. Scattered across the mountainside are Buddhist temples (which, again, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all). The temples, are connected by paths, not one step of which is on natural soil. Up, down, and across the mountain are millions and millions of stairs. This time, we elected to climb up and take the lift down. Having climbed a mountain or two in the past, a two hour hike up a mountain did not seem like it would be a big deal. But for whatever reason, a seemingly endless staircase is so much more intimidating than a normal trail up the side of a mountain. Emei Shan is actually quite large, so we only actually climbed a fraction of the way up. According to Sky, it takes three days to hike all the way up and back, a total difference of 30k. Judging by the map of Emei Shan and the 18-mile Marcy hike that Caitlin and I did last summer, I decided that it could be done in one long day, but I guess I’ll have to save that for next time. You wouldn’t have to carry a very heavy pack, if you did want to do it. Food and water was for sale all over the mountain, as well as the usual tourist trinkets and stuffed animal monkeys.

Why would they be selling stuffed animal monkeys, you ask? Well, its because Emei Shan is home to wild macaques. Yes, macaques are as hilarious as the name implies. My most notable encounter was when I was taking a picture of one, another snuck up behind me and reached in my front pocket. Tara and Nora were lucky enough to have monkeys jump on their heads and shoulders. Of course they didn’t think it was so great, but I was jealous. It was only slightly disappointing in that the monkeys weren’t truly wild. They were wild, but only really concentrated in the designated “monkey area” where handlers threatened with bamboo poles to make sure the monkeys behaved themselves. Something tells me they got most of their food from humans, as well, since they knew exactly where to look for it. So in that sense, it felt more like a monkey pettings zoo, but it was still pretty cool.

Anyway, we climbed up to the 10,000 year temple, and rode the gondola back down from there. The weather was a little clearer by this time, but still not clear enough for an significant views.

After Emei Shan, we drove to Le Shan (not French) where we would stay the night. The main attraction in Le Shan is the worlds tallest sitting Buddha. It was the world’s second tallest sitting Buddha, until the Taliban had its way in 2000. Le Shan’s Buddha is pretty cool to look at, but not much to talk about.