On 29 April 2024, we took a flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu, Sichuan.
Sichuan province is China's most popular travel destination, not only foreign visitors’ first choice but also Chinese’s favorite.
It is well known for its inhabitants of pandas and the spicy cuisine due to the humid climate. I’m sure you know pandas already, and probably have heard of Sichuan dishes such as Mapo tofu, Kung Pao chicken, and the prominent traditional spicy hotpot. If you have never tried a hotpot, or the experience was not satisfactory, stay tuned to our YouTube channel, Heaven will show you how to properly enjoy a real hotpot.
Sichuan consists of two geographically distinct parts. The eastern part of the province is mostly within the fertile Sichuan Basin and the western consists of numerous mountain ranges forming the easternmost part of the Tibet Plateau, which means the scenery is a lot different within the province, the richness of ethnic cultural differences will also shock you.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sichuan province include:
Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area
Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries
Huanglong Scenic and Historic interest Area
Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
We would travel to the first three sites this time. Our first destination was Mount Emei (or Omei). It is 3,099 meters (10,167 ft) tall, sitting at the western rim of the Sichuan Basin.
We flew from HK to Chengdu and booked a high-speed train from Chengdu to Mount Emei early morning the very next day. So when the evening flight was delayed to late night we were rather anxious.
Tips💡： the airline delays in China are quite often, so always avoid a too-packed schedule when traveling in Mainland.
Luckily we managed to catch the morning train after 3-hours of sleep in a hotel near Chengdu Tianfu Airport.
Tips💡: to go to Mount Emei, you need to buy tickets from Chengdu to Emei Shan (峨眉山) Station, not Emei Station.
It was around May holidays in China. This is a big holiday for the diligent and easy-to-be-manipulated Chinese finally can have a break. The dates and duration of the holiday vary every year. This year, it was from 1 to 5 May, 4 and 5 was the weekend, 2 and 3 were the substitute days off au lieu de 28 April and 11 May.
I hadn’t been in Mainland China for a long time and almost forgot how horrible it was to travel during “the golden holiday”. Not only was the hotel three times more expensive but also the train tickets were difficult to come by. Plus, I hold a Hong Kong SAR passport, Heaven is French. People who don’t have mainland ID can’t buy entrance tickets online in advance for most of the places we planned to go. Mount Emei was one of them.
Fortunately it was 30 April when people hadn’t flocked to travel. We managed to get the entrance tickets to Mount Emei right after getting off the high-speed train.
Tips💡: For Mount Emei, you can buy tickets instantly at the train station and store your luggage there.
We didn’t plan to hike all the way up to the golden peak, cause it needed at least two entire days for me.
I had been here once in the winter of 2013 hiking with my friends, that’s still the most miserable also memorable experience in my life. Back then I didn’t even exercise regularly, my bravery was rooted solely in the ignorance of how difficult Mount Emei could be.
We started the hike from Baoguo Temple (报国寺, the very bottom) at 5 am, only went halfway when dark out. We were starving and freezing. I thought I would die in the mountains and no one would know. Suddenly, my friend screamed, "There is a dilapidated temple in front and we can stay over.” I thought he watched too much Chinese drama and almost cursed, but the temples on Mount Emei could really accommodate people and offer vegan food!
I was over the moon before realizing this was a negative five-star hotel. I’m never a typical picky princess but this was really hard to handle. The room door could not close completely, the whole building was shaking with the wind, and I had to fight the monkeys for the toilet. There was no air conditioning or heating inside. I went to bed in a down jacket wrapped in a quilt, shaking my legs to keep warm.
We planned to wake up early to hike to the Golden Summit to see the sunrise the next day. The weather was extremely good, later I learned it was rare to see the blue skies there, only a few days in a year. But we didn’t manage to see the sunrise, we reached the top in the afternoon and were so exhausted that we just looked at the Giant Buddha statue from a distance.
This time was easier. We took the bus directly from the train station to Leidong Ping (雷洞坪), half way of Emei. This was a 1.5 hours ride. Then 2 hours hike to the Peak. Don’t look down upon this 2 hours, it was exhausting enough. Can’t imagine if we did the entire hike.
Tips💡: there are several ways to hike up to the peak. Before Leidongping, the bus stops at several places along the way, you can design your own route. From Leidongping, you can either take a cable car or hike 2 hours to the top. The temples are sparsed in all the heights, still open to public to stay, but only accept walk-in guests. I guess some of you are willing to experience the authentic Chinese monk life in a temple, better to avoid busy season, you can’t book in advance.
We booked a hotel on the Golden Summit already, had a lush vegan buffet in a temple.
The weather was foggy, it obscured the view most of the time. We saw the Buddha, which is said to bring good fortune. Ten minutes later, it disappeared in the haze.
The next day, it snowed in the morning. OMG snow in May. It was engaging though it buried the sunrise.
We went down the same way, enjoyed the hot spring around, rinsing off the fatigue, get ready for the long ride to Jiuzhaigou the next day.
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