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When last I wrote, I was on my way from Lijiang to Emeishan, one of the 4 Buddhist mountains in China. Well, mom and I made quite a job of that place. First, a lovely hotpot meal in Chengdu turned into 24 hours worth of stabbing stomach pains (not fun on a long bus ride). Mom and I had planned on taking the bus up to the top of the mountain immediately, exploring a bit, then hiking all the way down over three days, but instead stayed at the base for one night while I recovered.
The next morning we did get up early to take the 2 hour bus ride up to the top, then a quick cable ride up to the summit where we checked out a giant golden Buddha and a temple where many Chinese and devout Buddhists make their pilgrimage to. The fog was so thick up there though that we didn't reallize we were even next to these places until we practically tripped over their doorsteps. The fog wasn't only wet and bothersome, I think the Buddha looked better that way, and it provided unique photo opportunities. Still, the wet got into my clothes right quick, so I was glad when it disappated as we started our decent.
It was a wonderful hike. A Taiwanese guy made friends with us at the top and we hiked together about a third of the way before taking different path, he was a big help translating when we needed the occasional direction or when someone wanted to talk to us, as often happens, us being obvious foreigners. We made instant friends with about a dozen pilgrims by handing out taffy to them at a little rest stop. One of them was a 73-year-old man with bare feet and a big smile who bowed to us repeatedly. Others that we met on the mountain were the workers, men with packs on their backs carrying who knows what up and down where the buses don't reach. I saw a guy carrying tanks of gas, then lower down there were men lugging big hunks of rock and standing on scales because they get paid by how much weight they carry. That is aweful to me, these guys are small and they have horrific dark purple bruises on their shoulders where their packs weigh them down.
After four and a half hours, and twenty kilometers, mom and I stopped at Xixin Temple to spend the night. We had made good time and were ready for the vegetarian "monk food" we knew was to be provided. We threw our bags down on the hardest beds since southern Vietnam and went down to the kitchen for our veggie and rice dinner. After dinner we planned on reading outside, but were interrupted prematurely when all the workers from a couple kilometers up the trail came in for dinner. They came over and wanted to talk to us, which is always a joke, because even between the both of us we have a very limited vocabulary. Still we ended up with a few more friends before the evening was out. Then to sleep.
Now the thing I have yet to mention about Emeishan is that it is completely made up of stairs. That means mom and I did 30 kilometers of stairs over the course of 2 days, 95% of them going down. When we had stopped at the temple for the night, I had felt like I was in pretty good shape. Waking up was a whole different story altogether. My legs weren't so sore, but my knees were killing me. Oh. My. Gosh. I found that I couldn't walk down the stairs at all without something else to keep my mind occupied. So it was that mom and I found ourselves marching down the stairs together singing through our entire repertoire of show tunes and Disney songs. We had worn those out and I had just started in on Queen (which would have been quite a feat) when we came to the last Temple. My knees were killing me, and if mom's were, she was commenting on it a lot less than me, but we were almost done.
At long last we arrived at the Qingyin Pavilion, a beautiful pagoda and bridge over a small waterfall that was simply gorgeous. The pool underneath was so clear and clean that I stripped off my shoes and socks to wade. The ice cold water did wonders for my legs at this point. From here on out, the way was flat and particularly beautiful. Still we were quite greatful to board the bus at the end and get back to our hostel with hot showers and food with meat.
And what did we do the next day, waking up still sore and aching? Oh yes, we catch a bus practically next door to the Giant Buddha at Leshan and end up climbing up and down 5 flights of stairs twice each. Ouch. The Buddha (the tallest stone statue in the world, carved out of the cliff behind it) was no less impressive for the required climbing. It was so huge I could have sat comfortably in his ear. He was some 71 meters tall or so. There were also many temples and flowing streams up on the hill behind him to hang out around. Aside from the knee damage, it was quite a nice day.
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