Emeishan – Elephant Bathing Pool Temple to Golden Summit

19 October 2009
Emeishan – Elephant Bathing Pool Temple to Golden Summit

We woke up at 7:30 am to a very cold day. For breakfast we had a
Chinese style chocolate pancake and eggs with tomatoes... we
eventually were able to push are cold bodies into motion and got
starting hiking by 9 am. To ward off the morning rain, we donned
these cheap plastic ponchos we received at the light show in Yangshuo.
The rain reduced to a very light Seattle type rain, so we decided to
take off the rain jackets, as it was much more comfortable without
them. Much to our chagrin, it started raining hard immediately
afterwards, soaking us before we could even think of putting the
ponchos back on. Already wet, we decided to hike on poncho-less
through the thick fog in which you couldn't see more than 10 meters
ahead of you.

After 1:30 hours, we made it to Taizi Ping, where there is a large
parking lot. For those tourists that are less adventurous, you can
take a 2 hour bus up to this point and then catch a cable car up to
the summit. Its very popular to see the summit, so the parking lot
was full of tourists. There is also a plethora of comfortable looking
places to stay here. At this point the temperature had dropped so
dramatically that Julia needed her rain jacket for warmth and I put
back on the plastic poncho.

We found that the first hour and a half hike up from 2070 to 2540
meters was not to bad, however, the last 500 meters from 2540 to 3077
meters was a killer. It was like we had passed through an oxygen
layer, where below there is plenty of oxygen and above the oxygen
levels drop significantly. It took us 1:50 minutes to hike from the
parking lot, up the trail (which was steep at first but thankfully
leveled out as we got higher) to the top. In total it took us 3 hours
20 minutes to hike from Elephant Bathing Pool to the summit. Despite
the short hiking time, we were more exhausted than after our 1st and
2nd day hikes (which were 4 hour 40 minute and 4 hour 20 minutes
respectively).

When we reached the top we were tired, hungry, wet, and very cold.
The temperature at the top rages from 2 to 7 degrees Celsius (it felt
like being in Tahoe). We wondered around trying to find our hotel,
missing obvious signs written in English due to our state. Eventually
we checked in and notched the heater in our room to full and took a
much needed long hot shower. Feeling much better after a hot shower
and a snickers bar, we went in search of food.

We wandered down the hillside quite unwillingly but found signs
pointing toward a food court (which turned out to be the Golden Summit
Hotel Restaurant). We had chicken with peanuts and sweet and sour pork
and rice with two cokes and tea for 105Y (Entrees were roughly 30-50Y
each). There was a large group of Japanese tourists who were on tour
and also eating at the same hall. It was amazing to see the difference
in Japanese and Chinese tourists. Every single one of them was dressed
appropriately for the cold weather carrying backpacks in contrast to
the Chinese groups where half are wearing rented coats (20Y at the
summit with a 100Y deposit) and the rest in plastic ponchos. Most of
the Japanese were dressed better than us with one couple decked out in
a complete yellow North Face snowsuit combination. They also spoke
very softly. The Chinese waitress were singularly ten times louder
than the group of 30 Japanese speaking around the table combined.

- Scott

Emeishan – Hongchun Temple to Elephant Bathing Pool Temple

18 October 2009
Emeishan – Hongchun Temple to Elephant Bathing Pool Temple

In the morning we ate a wonderful breakfast of fried eggs with
tomatoes and rice, a chocolate banana pancake, tea, and two vitamin
drinks at the Hard Wok Cafe (all for for 50 RMB). We started hiking
at 9 am and shortly ran into a Chinese family that was heavily
traumatized. They had been attacked by monkeys.... later that day we
found the crime scene... personal belongings were torn apart and
strewn everywhere. Luckily the monkeys were long gone. Later we ran
into a trio of backpackers (an Indian guy whose name we can't begin to
spell... his Chinese girlfriend Alien (I don't understand the choice
of her English name either), and a Brit named Gary) who had stayed at
our same hotel but had gotten an earlier start on the trail. Gary
wanted to summit that day and after talking to us about the distance
he took off running up the trail (luckily he was traveling very
light... making the trip much easier). The Chinese and Indian couple
hiked with us the rest of the way... luckily with no monkey
sightings... until Elephant Bathing Temple (however, said Indian was
very afraid of attacks the entire way and kept saying that he smelt
the monkeys coming). The hike was very foggy and cold... with a
Seattle like drizzle coming down the whole hike.

We made it from Hongchun to Elephant Bathing Temple in 4 hours and 20
minutes... but we probably could have made it in less than 4 hours if
we weren't held up by the interesting conversation with our new
friends. Over the day we had an absolute ascent of 900 meters, but we
are guessing that we climbed over 1000 meters in total due to the up
and down terrain. Upon arriving at the Temple, we pondered why the
Temple would be called Elephant Bathing Temple... as one was very
unlikely to get an Elephant to climb such steep steps to the Temple's
location. I surmised that they must have marched more willing baby
elephants up the mountain (note that there are no actual elephants at
the temple). The views from the temple down into the valley below
were magnificent (especially at night, as you could see the lights
from the city below)... but the room rates were less so. We had to
pay 160 RMB for double room (400 RMB will get you the luxury room).
Our room had a TV (which we couldn't' confirm worked), two beds, and
electric blankets. Again, public gym style showers were the norm...
but you had to strangely wait till 5 pm before any hot water was
available.

For dinner we ventured into the Temple's dining hall to see what was
up available. The temple was serving a set veggie meal for 10 Yuan...
or there was an option of ordering off the menu (which unfortunately
was written all in Chinese). As the set veggie dinner didn't look
appetizing and we couldn't read the menu we decided to eat at a
restaurant located outside the temple grounds. One point in favor of
the restaurant was that the room was heated (… it was really cold that
night). We ordered chicken and chilis (very very hot) (40Y), rice (4Y
for each bowl), noodles with fried egg (8Y), a beer, tea, and a yogurt
drink (to calm my burning mouth). During the whole dinner one of the
two employees kept motioning two bent thumbs which he'd put
together... we'll need to figure out what that means. While we ate
dinner the ChinIndian couple continued hiking into the dark, hoping to
reach the next temple so that they could then reach the summit for the
sunrise.

- Scott