Bryn O'Hara '20

It takes over a day to hike Mt. Emei, but since I only have a day here, I decided to cheat a little bit. This morning I caught a 9 am bus that took me up a good portion of the mountain in 2 hours, dropping me off at Lei Dong Ping Station. From here, it would be 6km to the summit. 

Since I hadn’t eat breakfast yet, I stopped and bought baozi, my favorite breakfast (or honestly anytime) food for about 3 times as much as I would usually pay. I started to eat while beginning the climb, but I was quickly told in Chinese by another climber – be careful, put those away, the monkeys! Sure enough, I looked ahead and there were about 10 wild monkeys! There is a specific section of Mt. Emei that is specially known for having lots of wild monkeys, however, being so far away from that section, I didn’t expect to see so many monkeys so soon! A little bit further ahead there were signs warning that the monkeys have been known to rob passerby and to keep a good distance from them. The Chinese tourists loved the monkeys and were so excited to take videos of them and get up close with them, but me…I was scared! I got out of there as quickly as I could! 

For the next 3 hours I climbed almost 4 miles of stairs. The higher up I got, the more mystical the journey seemed. Everything around me was so foggy that instead of sweeping mountain views, all I could see was white. I knew that I made it to the summit not by the view but by the smell of incense burning. As I got closer, people praying and lighting incense emerged out of the fog. Then finally I started to make out the giant golden statue at the top of the summit, for which it is named “Golden Summit”. Even standing directly at the base of the golden statue, I still could not see the top because it was so foggy. It was like I was walking in the middle of a giant cloud. Everywhere I looked disappeared into nothingness. I began to notice other travelers walking around the statue in a clockwise motion, all praying. I began to follow behind them when I realized that I could actually enter into the inside of the golden statue, which housed a big golden Buddha (not nearly as big as the Leshan Buddha though!). I took some time to take in what I was able to see at the summit, then began making my way back down to Lei Dong Ping Station. From there I rode the bus 2 hours back to the base of the mountain. 

Starving, I decided to try some authentic and spicy Sichuan food.  I’ll admit it was really spicy! But nothing I couldn’t handle 😉 

Finally, I came back to my hostel to shower and have a chill end to the day. To my surprise, but also an awesome coincidence, one of my classmates from my study abroad program happened to be in the same exact hostel room! A great way to end the day in Emei before my train out tomorrow morning. 

Once on my way to Leshan, all was well! I made friends with two locals on the train ride who gave me an orange. One of them told me this was the first time in his entire life talking to a foreigner. I tried to imagine what it would be like to go my whole adolescent life only talking to people of my own race. How would my perspective be different? 

After about an hour ride, I exited the train in hot and sunny Leshan! I hopped on a public bus that took me through the city and all the way to the entrance of the Leshan Buddha. The Buddha is within a larger park, so I bought an entrance ticket to the park and began to make my way. There were many other smaller Buddhas along the way, with locals praying and burning incense in the air. 

I wasn’t quite sure how far of a walk it would be to get to the Buddha when all of a sudden I stumbled upon it….my jaw dropped for a second time. At first I could only see the Buddha’s head, and it was SO much bigger than I had imagined. I caught myself whispering “oh s**t, oh s**t” to myself for about a minute. 

Getting a closer look, I found the Buddha to be absolutely magnificent. It looks out at the water below, and in the very far distance, Mt. Emei. Legend has it that a monk built the Buddha in hopes of calming the turbulent water below. Allegedly, when the Buddha was built over a period of 70+ years, so much stone was dumped into the water that it did in fact calm the waters! 

After staring at the Buddha in awe for quite some time, wondering how I would measure up to it, I decided to get another view of it by descending to its base. There is a set of stairs built along side the wall of the rock which can be used to get to the base. Alongside the stairs, small figures are carved into the side of the rock. 

At the base, I was shocked all over again. Here I could see more clearly details like the Buddha’s foot (just one toe alone seemed huge!). Again I stood here in awe for quite some time, trying my hardest to take in every detail with my eyes. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting awesome mango tea and talking to more locals. Then in the evening I boarded another train to take me to Emei. After only 20 minutes I arrived in Emei, ate some of the spiciest dumplings I’ve ever had, and checked into my hostel for the night. 

 Day 4 was long and not too exciting. I reserved a taxi the night before, then woke up early to take a relaxing hour long drive through the countryside to Yangshuo Station. It was so bittersweet taking in Yangshuo’s beautiful views one last time before my departure. I thought a lot about the lives of the people of Yangshuo.

At 11 am I boarded a train that would take me all the way from Yangshuo, southern China to Chengdu, in western China. Chengdu is in Sichuan province, which is basically on the border of Tibet and famous for spicy food! After almost 8 hours I arrived in Chengdu, exhausted from doing absolutely nothing all day. 

However, I was determined not to waste any time and decided to check out Jin Li street. Now well after sunset, Jin Li Street was lit up with tons of red lanterns.  Chinese tourists walked around all the alleys that sell street food and little trinkets, mostly related to pandas because Chengdu is famous for its panda research center. It was fun to walk around, but it didn’t blow me away like Shanghai’s YuYuan Garden. I feel like once you’ve seen one street market in China, you’ve seen most street markets in China.  It was still fun to walk around and enjoy the night before checking into my hostel. 

My hostel had a great vibe, with jazz music playing in the lobby and foreigners and Chinese together chatting and drinking beers. I reflected for a bit before getting to bed early in preparation for a big day the coming day.

After some time in Xingping village, I was determined to get to a more central part of Yangshuo so I could climb Moon Hill. I boarded another bus which dropped me off in the heart of Yangshuo. Here was like nothing I had ever seen before. The busy roads were filled with people on scooters and motorbikes while the roads were lined with shop after shop. But most shocking to me was directly behind this backdrop, stood great green mountains that seemed to emerge from nowhere. What I liked most about the village was that it seemed largely untouched (so far) by Western giants like McDonald’s and Starbucks. Each shop seemed to be family owned, and a quick search on Baidu Maps (the Chinese equivalent of Google maps) showed that there was only one McDonald’s in the nearby area and it was over 30 minutes away. 

Unfortunately at this time it was too late for me to make it to Moon Hill before it closed at sunset, so I opted to walk around and check out the local shops until I finally made my way to West Street.  

I never expected West Street to be so full of life! The street split off into many little alleys, all full of local shops, bars and restaurants. There was live music on every corner, and pedestrians walked in the street. At times there were so many people it was hard to walk! I spent hours here, eating dinner, drinking bubble tea and watching the sunset. Finally after nightfall, I walked about 20 minutes to make it to my hostel for the night. 

If yesterday’s views were breath taking,  the views of Yangshuo were jaw dropping! 

I started the day again with an American breakfast, and said goodbye to the hostel staff, one of whom gave me a piece of cloth she had dyed to create a traditional flower print. As Yangshuo, my next stop, is right down the river from Guilin, I decided what better way to get there then to float down the river on a bamboo raft! So to get to the pier, I was picked up in a small 8 person bus which then took me to a larger bus which would supposedly take me to one of the Guilin piers. 

At the pier I made friends with a group of three Chinese girls and we decided to all ride on a raft together. If you can speak Chinese, making friends here is not hard at all. In my experience in Beijing and Shanghai, life is fast and it is expected that foreigners would know at least a little Chinese to keep up. But in southern China, life is much slower and encountering other foreigners is way less common. It seems like most people expect that foreigners here don’t know a word of Chinese, to the extent that when I am able to communicate with them in Chinese, I receive almost instant respect. Once you earn a local’s respect, they will do anything to help you out. 

The four of us boarded the raft together in the 80 degree heat and with our driver began to make our way down the river. As I mentioned earlier, my jaw literally dropped. The karsts that lay ahead were magnificently beautiful. Once we made our way past one, another one seemed to rise out of the water. They aligned so nicely against the skyline with a light mist that dangled in the air. 

We rode the bamboo raft about an hour down the river until we made it to the pier of Xingping Village. Here we stepped onto land and began to make our way through the well preserved ancient village. Everywhere you turned there was someone selling street food or hand crafted souvenirs. 

 Today was incredibly rewarding despite the ups and downs. My morning started with coffee and an American style breakfast provided by my hostel, but quickly turned into minor chaos when no one could seem to tell me where to board the bus they had helped me book tickets for the previous day. Ultimately I ended up missing my first intended bus and just barely making the next one, but once I was onboard I was strapped in for a 2.5 hour drive outside of Guilin to the Longji Rice Terraces. On the way I met a new friend Sun Ai Ling, and we decided to hike the terraces together. 

Once off the bus in Dazhai, we walked through a small village that sits at the bottom of the terraces. One of China’s 56 ethnic minorities live here, and it was fascinating to watch the women walk around in their traditional clothes. This particular village is known for the women all having incredibly long and beautiful hair that goes down past their waist – I’ve never seen hair so long. I honestly didn’t believe that it was real, so I asked one of the older woman. She said if I paid her she would show me herself. I laughed and started to make the way up the mountain with my new friend. 

The hike itself was steep but not too challenging. We followed a path that at times winds through the rice terraces, other times through bamboo, and even other times through hotels and little shops built up on the mountainside. I could smell fire burning with a hint of incense in the air as we passed through the structures built in the mountainside. 

Finally at the top of the mountain, looking down at the rice terraces cutting into the mountainside, as well as the village that lay below, the view was nothing less than breath taking. Mist hung over the mountains in the distance. Sadly the rice terraces were not filled with water yet; some say that when they are filled with water and reflect the sky, they look like the shimmering scales of a dragon, hence the name the dragon’s backbone. 

I’m so happy to have conquered the dragons backbone and to have made a couple new chinese friends, from a friendly traveler on the bus to the rice terraces with me to a 19 year old kid eager to practice speaking English with anybody who would take the time to listen. As it’s now starting to rain, I’ve decided to call it an early night and get some rest in preparation for my travel to Yangshuo tomorrow morning!

After getting off a 20 hour sleeper train, my back was slightly aching and I was ready to take Guilin! My first steps into the fresh Guilin air was the perfect remedy: clear pale blue sky, like a robin’s egg, and about 75 degree perfect weather. I could almost smell summer. 

The only foreigner at the train station, I was bombarded with taxi requests, but I decided to hop on a local bus for $0.30 and ride it 13 stops downtown to make my way to Elephant Hill. Elephant Hill is considered to be one of the pride and joys of Guilin, and is called Elephant Hill because from the side it looks like an elephant trunk dipping into the water. Riding the public transportation through the city’s downtown area, I found that it is full of life but nowhere nearly as big or developed as Beijing, Shanghai, or even Harbin or Xi’an. There are no skyscrapers, which is great because it allows perfect views of the surrounding mountains. There is no air pollution, and no one here wears masks.

From the top of Elephant Hill I could see these mountains looming in the backdrop of the city. They looked so mystical yet inviting at the same time. I made my way down to the base of where the “elephant trunk” meets the water, and made sure to get views of it from land across the river as well. Everything was so green and luscious! 

After Elephant Hill I walked to the Sun and Moon Pagodas that stand in a nearby lake. With absolutely stunning traditional architecture, they reminded me a bit of my old home, Beijing! I sat and observed fisherman catch fish in the lake and watched the funny dynamic between them when one caught fish after fish and the other couldn’t catch any at all! 

I strolled around the beautiful rivers at sunset, ate street food at a local market, got attacked by a perseverant fish that jumped out of its tank, checked out the Twin Pagodas again at nightfall, and finally made my way to my hostel for the night. Being my first hostel experience, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and needless to say, it definitely delivered an unexpected experience, making me seriously question what I had willing signed myself up for. However, I’m going to tough it out; it’s all part of the experience.  As for now, I’m looking forward to what Day 2 of my travels brings.