Mar 28, Saturday, Emeishan

Paul was up before the crack of dawn to see if he could get pictures of the sunrise.  No luck.  Socked in again.  However, the clouds did clear enough that he was able to get some pictures of the Golden Statue at the top of the summit. 

There  are four things to see at the top of the mountain:  Sunrise, Sunset, sea of clouds, and Buddha light (When the sun projects the shadow of the viewer on the clouds in front of him or her, ice crystals and tiny drops of water in the clouds may reflect the light to form a rainbow around the shadow).  We saw only the sea of clouds (on our first evening there).

Then it was breakfast, checkout and the long trek (cable car, then 700 stairs) down to the bottom transit area.  It was rather rainy from the base of the cable car all the way to the bottom.  Because it was Saturday, the Chinese were out in force to visit their sacred mountain.  In fact, the line of Chinese in rain slickers and umbrellas was unbroken for at least half way down the mountain.  Mary took a sedan chair and Paul walked but didn't take pictures of the unending line of Chinese, Mary was bouncing too much to take pictures).

Then it was a 2+ hour bus ride to the town of Emeishan at the foot of Mt. Emei to visit the Protecting the State Temple (or Huguo Si).

Protecting the State Temple

Protectors guarding the entrance to the temple

Lighting candles.

Burning Incense

Worshipers at the temple

Write your wish on a card and hang it so the winds can blow the wish to the gods.

Then we walked to the Crouching Tiger Temple (or Fuhu Si).  The walk to the temple was through a lovely forested area over some lovely bridges and up a lot of stairs.

Crouching Tiger Temple

Crouching Tiger Temple is on the top of a hill in a forested area and was really lovely. 

Crouching Tiger Temple

Happy Buddha

Roof detail

Candles burning to send prayers to the gods.

Temple Courtyard

 We did not see any other Caucasians, but apparently they get many in the summer.