The waiting time for the train turned out to be longer than the high speed train journey. The train from Chengdu Airport bound for Emeishan town will only depart at 730pm, and will take 1 hour to reach Emeishan. The train travel at a top speed of 245km/h and will stopby Leshan and Meishandong stations. I just had dinner at the airport before heading to the waiting room. The airport terminal 2 is linked to the train station at B2, so it is very convenient.
15 minutes before the train from Chengdu arrived, announcement will be made to ask people get ready to go down to platform. After we scan our tickets at the gantry, we are allowed down to the platform to wait for trains 10 minutes before the train arrive. The train has 15 coaches so one has to walk quite far to reach the coach that he has to board. Once the train stopped at the platform, people will get down first before we can squeeze in. The train was not full, considering this is already the 2nd last train coming from Chengdu.
From Emeishan station, you will see many touts offer taxi rides to the town, at higher price. You can also share cab with others at the taxi stand, each will pay 10RMB, and the taxi driver will leave once 4 passengers got on the taxi. He will plan the route to drop the passengers based on his convenience. The lady next to me was not impressed as she didnt get to get down first.
The next morning, I took a cab to Baoguosi to go to Emeishan National Park. The entrance fee included the shuttle bus ride into the mountain. It was 2 hour ride from Emeishan bus station to Leidongping. We will stop once so that the driver can add water to the bus. We will stop a second time for security screening and ticket checking at the 0km checkpoint. No private cars beyond here.
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If one opted to walk all the way from the entrance to the peak, it will take at least 2-3 days depends on stamina and pace, passing through quite a few villages, temples, pagodas along the way, those are considered multi day trek. For those that prefer a day trip without spending a night at the peak, we did the shuttle bus and the cable car way.
Once we got down at Leidongping, we walk 600m or so to the cable car station that brought us to the peak. The 600m walkway is lined with tents with merchants selling food, herbs and handicrafts. There were also monkeys that tried to get food, but there were separated from the walkway by a fence and some rangers were there to ensure they dont get too aggresive. The walk up to the cable car station was gradual. For the older folks, there are men offering sedan chair that bring you up to the cable car station.
Cable car station tickets have to be paid separately. It was a quick ride to the top (Golden Peak) and there was constructions on going to build more monasteries. I walked to the places that have less tourists, majority of them thronged to the temples to pray for good fortune. I saw a pagoda (Thousand Buddha Temple) that was not reachable by feet. Apparently there used to be a monorail that link the Golden Peak to Thousand Buddha Peak (Highest point) but due to maintenance, the train is not running at the moment.
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There were many food choices in Golden Peak and the surrounding area. Surprisingly, the price of the food were all standardised, one cup noodle was RMB10, very reasonable.
I went down to take another cable car to the Wannian Temple (Ten-Thousand-Years-Temple), and found many beautiful flowers and trees there. Probably one of the oldest temple in the Emeishan region. It was rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty in 1600, and renamed Wannian Temple till now. It was named by the Ming Emperor then as a happy birthday gesture to his mum, to wish his mum the best of health and long life.
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By the time I finish touring this temple, it is time to get down the mountain. On the way back, i saw the river that run parallel to the road, which i saw from the golden peak. The colour of the water was blue, so incredible given that the villages probably discharged all sorts of things into the river. There were people fishing there as well.
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Once I reached town, I found some good food by taking public bus (only RMB1 per ride, and they announce the stations). It was time to head to the airport by my favourite high speed train!
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