What to Expect at Mt. Emei

 

1.   Buddhist Temples

There are in total about 40 temples and monasteries in Mt. Emei. The big ones include Baoguo Temple, Fuhu Temple, Wannian Temple, Xixiang Pond Monastery, Xianfeng Temple and Huazang Temple. Baoguo Temple and Fuhu Temple are located at the base of Mt Emei and can be assessed by car. Wannian Temple is located by the middle part of Emei, Huazang Temple is at the Golden Summit, these two temples can only be accessed by foot but with shorter walking. While Xianfeng Temple and Xixiang Pond Temple are located in the mountain and can only be accessed by foot for long time of walking. Usually visitors cover Baoguo Temple at the base, Wannian Temple at the middle range and Huazeng Temple at the summit. 

At Baoguo Temple you can arrange a visit quite easily, it is within walking distance from where usually the lots of hotels are by the base of Mt. Emei. Baoguo Temple is kept as a quiet and decent monastery that it’s nice to walk around in it. The base of Mt. Emei is also where the bus station is. The bus station of Mt Emei shares the same name of this temple: Baoguosi Bus Station, as local people usually call it. Baoguo Temple charges an 8 yuan for ticket separately. 

Wannian Temple is at the middle part of Mt Emei. One needs to use a tourist bus to get there for 40 minutes. Wannian Temple is the biggest and the original monastery of Mt Emei. To get there you need to either take a cable car ride or to walk from where the bus drops you off – Wannian Temple Car Park. The cable car costs 65 yuan to go up and 45yuan to come back. By walking it takes you about 40 minutes to get there. Although one doesn’t necessarily need to come back the same way as Wannian Temple connects to the walking trail that goes out to Qinyinge at Wuxianggang Car Park for another 1.5 hour’s walking. Wannian Temple charges a 10 yuan for entrance ticket separately.

Huazang Temple at the Golden Summit is the most crowded one. It locates at the summit among 2 other minor temples. Huazang Temple and the other 2 small temples at the summit are free of charge.

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2.    Views from Golden Summit 金顶
Golden Summit is the destination of Mt Emei visit. It’s a big area consisting of 3 small temples: Huazang Temple, Copper Statue and Woyun Temple; and places where you can watch sunrise. It is usually crowded with lots of visitors all the time all the season. You often see many Buddhists come here too due to its religious significance. From Golden Summit in a clear day you can see the snow-capped mountains of western Sichuan/eastern Tibetan Plateau and the many other mountains to its west. Given that Mt Emei is usually a very foggy place, half of the time it is just all misty, which many visitors come to see nothing but temples and people. If you want to watch sunrise at Golden Summit, stay one night at near the summit is a good idea as usually the weather much more stable in the early morning. Winter is usually the dry season and you have a much higher chance to see great views including sea cloud, mountains, etc from Golden Summit. 

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3.    Hiking Mt Emei
Depending on how much hiking you want to do and how much time you have, here listed are 3 kinds of hikings at Mt Emei recommended for you. 
For the lazy hikers, it is not recommended to walk all the way up to the summit from the base because you will possibly end up wasting time. It can get boring walking up from the base all the way to the summit or near the summit because for some people walking on stairs all the way up can be tiring and boring. What you can consider is to do 2 parts of the walkings or just one of them: 1. From Leidongping Car Park to the summit that is 6km and takes about 2 hours. This part is going up steep all the way; 2. From Wannian Car Park to Wannian Temple and continue to Qinyinge Temple/Wuxianggan Car Park. This part takes about 2.5 hours of walking although the first part can be replaces by a cable car ride. This part is going up and down on more gradual stairs.
For the fit hikers, you may consider to walk up the summit from Wannian Temple in one day by using a tourist bus to get to Wannian Car Park first and then walk to Wanian Temple and continue up to Xixiang Pond and then Leidongping Car Park and then to the summit in 8 hours from 850m to 3050m.
For extreme hiking, you can start from Wuxianggang Car Park by a 20 minutes ride using tourist bus. From Wuxianggang you walk to Qingyinge Temple and continue to Xianfeng Temple and then Xixiang Pond then to the summit in about 12 hours from 700m to 3050m. Read more about Mt Emei Hiking.

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4.    Hot Spring 温泉
Hot springs are available all the season at the base of Mt Emei. There are more than one places where you can go use hot spring. Among them there are 
Hongzhushan Hot Spring: 13:30-24:00, 268 yuan.
Lingxiu Hot Srping: 14:00-24:00, 248 yuan.
Emeishan Hotel Hot Spring: 14:30-24:00, 90 yuan.

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5.    Winter Ski 
There is a Ski Resort in Emeishan at Leidongping. It is available every winter in December and January.

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6.    Monkeys

The monkeys at Mt. Emei are notorious. These monkeys are Tibetan Macaques, usually big in size and not friendly to visitors. The places you will likely to see monkeys are usually 3: a. the monkey zone 2km after Qingyin Temple; b. Around Yuxian Temple and Xixiang Pond; c. On the way from Leidongping Car Park to Jieyindian Cable Car Station. While encountering the monkeys, it is wise not to feed them as they are very greedy and will snatch things from you. Please remember to keep things covered up while there are monkeys around.

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7.    Lots of paying for tickets

Expect lots of paying tickets while traveling in Mt Emei. First by the entrance you need to pay an admission fee that is CNY160 (2019 new price). Along with the admission fee, you will also need to pay for a tourist bus ticket that costs usually 90 yuan for round trip that will take you directly to Leidongping Car Park, 40 yuan if you want to go to Wuxianggang Car Park or Wannian Temple Car Park. 
So if you do the usual tourist route, that is using the tourist bus to go all the way to Leidongping Car Park, after the 1.5km walking from Leidongping you arrive at Jieyindian Cable Car Station, you need to pay for another 120 yuan round trip Cable Car ticket. And when you come back down if you want to do the side tour to Wannian Temple, after you get off the tourist bus, to use another cable car you need to pay for CNY110 for a round trip to Wannian Temple.
If you wish to walk up to the summit, from either Wuxianggang Car Park or Wannian Temple Car Park you still need to use the tourist bus. And then when you come back down from the summit, if you are not walking down, then a 50 yuan tourist bus ride you need to use.

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8.    Planning Ideas

Please contact us for planning ideas for different season, duration of visits..

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Locations and Maps

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Mt. Emei is a big place. It is located west to the city of Emeishan. From Chengdu you need to drive for about 2 and half hours. 

1. Baoguosi (Baoguo Temple Station)
It is the easiest entrance that travelers can get to. It is 2km from the Emeishan Fast Train station and the same place of where the buses to Chengdu are at. At Baoguosi there are plenty of hotels and restaurants you can find.
Address in Chinese is 报国寺，峨眉山

Detailed Map around Baoguo Temple Station

2. Huangwan 
Huangwan is the official entrance of Mt. Emei, many tourist groups go in from here. So if you try to avoid big groups of people, don't go in from here. It has a big parking lot and it is also where you wait to get on a bus if you go in from here.
Address in Chinese is 黄湾，峨眉山

3. Wuxiangang
This entrance is usually used as a hiking entrance to Qingyin Pavilion or further. But if you come in using the bus, you can purchase the entrance ticket by Baoguosi or Huanwan and only to be checked here.
Address in Chinese is 五显岗，峨眉山

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Ticket Information

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Travelers usually need to pay more than just admission fee. There is also Tourist Bus, Cable Car to Golden Summit, Cable Car to Wannian Temple, and admission to Baoguo Temple, Wannian Temple and Fuhu Temple.
Mt. Emei admission CNY160 per person
Tourist Bus round way CNY90 (note that single way is CNY50)
Golden Summit Cable Car CNY120 per person round way. (going up 65 yuan, coming down 55 yuan)
Wannian Cable Car CNY110 per person round way. (going up 65 yuan, coming down 45 yuan)
If you don't go to Wannian Temple, you don't need to use the Wannian Cable Car.
Admission to Wannian Temple (CNY10) and Baoguo Temple (CNY8) and Fuhu Temple (CNY10) need to be paid separately if you want to visit.
Basically if one wants to do a standard Mt. Emei Tour, admission fee (CNY160), tourist bus (CNY90) and Golden Summit Cable Car (CNY120) are necessary if you don’t want to walk much.

From later 2018 the park started a facial recognition entrance that everyone needs to have their photos taken while passing every ticket check point.
Traveling in January sometimes get lower price of the admission fees.

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