We were warned multiple times. During Golden Week (from October 1st to 8th), which also includes the Mid-Autumn Festival, many Chinese have time off and children have school holidays. These are some of the few days a year when Chinese people have free time and can travel. And they do. Here is our trip so far to Emeishan.
A news ticker from the TV announced that the Chinese State Railway had transported 23 million people in one day across the country (that is 50% of all Spanish people — or almost all Dutch and Austrians combined) – as I said: in one day. But we couldn’t just stay in the hotel room for 8 days. So, off we went into the hustle and bustle.
Temple in 3.011 m (9.878 feet)
We are visiting one of the 4 Buddhist Mountain Sanctuaries in China: Mount Emeishan, near Chengdu. About 30 temples and monasteries are spread across this mountain, and a golden statue is enthroned high on the peak. Western tourists are rare here, and even the monks want to take a selfie with us.
Sunrise in the fog
It used to take about 3 days to ascend to 3,000 m; today, we take the bus, spend the night on the mountain (at 2,600 m), and took the cable car up the last few meters at 5:00 a.m. for the sunrise. But the weather did not cooperate: fog, light rain, and no sign of the sunrise. And at breakfast, our bread bag almost exploded due to the altitude.
We therefore browsed the internet to see what it could have looked like. But the sun did come out later.
Wonderful again and lovely chinese music to make it even more special !
What an amazing experience. Love the photo of Sylvia above the clouds and those giant statues are incredible.