After the visit to the summit of Mt. Emei, we journeyed back towards Emei town. We stopped at a highway restaurant that was flooded with other large groups of buses. The food was insufficient and not well prepared. The staff seemed too hurried by the number of people and as a result did not prepare food properly. The previous day the place we were taken to lunch was simple, but the food that was prepared was super delicious and varied. I had to go to the restroom to remove one of the pant layers off; it had been cold in the summit and now the temperature was mild. I made a journal entry that the bathroom was a disaster.
We then walked to the beginning point of a cable car to take us to Wannian Temple.
We swung in the misty air over farmhouses and bamboo forests.
Soon we had to climb a steep staircase with over a hundred steps to reach the temple door.
This kid played around with a bamboo pole while waiting in line to go in.
I could not tell if this was a residence for monks or a place that offered rooms for travelers. I did not see more than two monks so I figured it was the latter. I later read in a guide book that you could rent a room to stay in the compound and that newlyweds sometimes did that.
The setting of the whole place was magical - beautiful buildings set against the mountains in the background, deep forests of bamboo and pines, misty clouds and fog all around.
Wannian Temple has the oldest surviving building on Mt. Emei, dating to 1611.
The temple houses a famous golden statue of Puxian, one of the botthisatvas that brought Buddhism to China from India.
The vases placed on the exterior where impressive because of their design and size.
The building housing the statue of the botthisatvha was Indian in style and architecture.
A ping pong table but no players.
I saw historical pictures of celebrations of great Buddhist festivals, with many monks lining this path. Architecturally, this path is perfect, with a building of fine detail seen in profile at the distance, and the path lined with sculptures of elephants.
There was a museum on site displaying some of the treasures of Mt. Emei's temples.
A tea house in the complex
We walked back to our point of origin instead of taking the cable car. The walk was downhill through misty forests with views of farmer's homes. There were some inns set among the homes. We passed by a temple that was not open to the public. It was reminiscent of scenes from
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I thought I had read that some scenes of the movie were filmed in one of these temples in Mt. Emei, but my research into it does not confirm that.
My new friend's mother, in her late 70s, had the energy to walk along all these paths with us, although she walked slower than the rest of the group.
We reached our bus and headed back to Chengdu, a drive of 2 hours. We didn't stop for a bathroom break and we did not have dinner. The bus dropped us at the center of the city rather than taking us to our respective hotels. I found all of these last details very odd, sort of as if the tour organizers had made an effort to accommodate us at the beginning and where in a hurry to get us back home. I now understood why the other travelers had bought snacks and were buying things offered to them along the way, such as corn on the cob, noodles with soup, roasted sweet potatoes, etc. I didn't eat much, not wanting to have to go to the bathroom. The constant change of clothes- changes in temperature, from Arctic weather in the summit to cool mist in the bamboo forest made me sneezy.
