<img class="size-full wp-image-3569 alignright" title="IMG_0119-small-300x225" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IMG_0119-small-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />

During Chinese New Year and the week after I decided to head down to Sichuan and see some more of China. As part of my trip I planned to scale Mount Emei (峨眉山), one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China. It is traditionally regarded as the place of enlightenment of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra. As such I was expecting a nice stroll through beautiful scenery. I never expected the path to enlightenment to have so many steps and so much snow![hr style=dotted-line margin_top=20 margin_bottom=20]

<img class="size-full wp-image-3570 alignleft" title="IMG_0192-small-225x300" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IMG_0192-small-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" />I was on a tight time schedule because naturally I wanted to see the pandas the day after climbing 峨眉山, so I decided to start climbing from a third of the way up the mountain. There are buses that take you to different starting points on the mountain- most tourists decide to get the bus straight to the peak. I scorned at this idea at the time but learned too late that this was probably the most sensible option. In order to make it up the trail in a day I started walking before sunrise. At the beginning the going was easy – a light fog, cool weather and steps of a reasonable incline. After an hour of steps I was beginning to regret my decisions and started doubting whether my body and mind was up for another 9 hours of climbing. I stopped for some noodles and while I was waiting for the noodles I struck up a conversation with some Chinese pilgrims. They were happy to see a ‘foreigner’ visiting and were impressed by the progress I had made thus far. I guess I walked faster since when climbing they would kneel, place their forehead on the ground, stand back up and continue walking after every 3 steps. By comparison I had nothing to complain about!

As I started walking again I was joined by a group of 7 young Chinese people living and working around Sichuan who had decided to check out 峨眉山 during their winter break. They gave me renewed courage to continue with their constant “加油’s”! Learning about what everyone did gave a welcome distraction to the climbing. After another hour of climbing the temperature had dropped well below 0C and it started snowing. Within the hour all the evergreens bowed under the weight of the snow and ice and arched over the pathways. Within 2 hours we were walking ankle deep in snow. We climbed for a total of 10 hours, with a few breaks for food along the way. Once we reached the top we were greeted by hordes of Chinese tourists playing in the snow (many Sichuanese having never seen snow before) and we decided to stay a night on the peak so we could see the sunrise in the morning.[hr style=dotted-line margin_top=20 margin_bottom=20]

<img class="size-full wp-image-3571 alignright" title="IMG_0197-small-300x225" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IMG_0197-small-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />It was at this point I regretted not having walked faster so I could have got the bus back down at the end of the day. The outside temperature was about -15C and the inside temperature about -5C owing to the fact that places South of the Yellow River don’t have central heating. We shared a big room of 4 beds and all just lay in bed complaining about how cold it was. One of my favourite sentences in Chinese came in very useful: “我快要冻死了!” By the morning all the water in the room had frozen solid and I discovered a new ‘hate’: frozen socks! (I thought putting on wet socks was bad….) We awoke for the sunrise and all got the bus back down to town together and watched as the snow dissipated the lower down the mountain we got. In all, it was one of the most challenging holidays I have had in a while but one of the most rewarding! I missed the pandas but I made some new QQ friends, reignited my faith in the beauty of China and am 1 sacred Buddhist Mountain down with 3 more to go!

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<strong>Related Vocabulary</strong>

爬山 páshān – Climb a mountain

寺庙 sìmiào – Temple

山顶 shāndǐng – Mountain peak

“加油!” jiāyóu! – “Come on!”

峨眉山 Éméishān – Mount Emei

“我快要冻死了!” Wǒ kuàiyào dòng sǐle! – “I’m freezing to death!”

[This story was contributed by Daniel Greeves]