Emei Shan

On the day we left Leshan, we said good-bye to Xavier who wanted to cross Yunnan as fast as possible in order to enter Laos. Holger and we decided to continue together. It was a short 34 km ride from Leshan to Emei Shan, one of the four holy Buddhist mountains in China. When we arrived in Baogou, the village at the foot of Emei Shan, we saw that we still weren't alone. Like in Leshan many Chinese took advantage of the golden week and visited Emei Shan. The cars and buses came to a stand-still while we were passing them on our bicycles. Baogou was packed and the hotels booked out - we hadn't booked in advance. Luckily the owner of the hotel offered us a room in his flat that was some km off the tourist center. In the end it turned out to be an ideal place: cheaper accommodation, cheaper restaurants and we could easily cycle to the hostel to use the internet there. Backpackers didn't like the place as it was too far from the action.

We stayed some days in Baogou and went up Emei Shan twice. As usual we didn't have luck with the weather. It was still this Sichuan typical grey and misty weather. On the second day we made it to the Golden Summit, 3077 m and countless stairs, where the sky cleared up at least for half an hour.

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