Mount Emei

The mountain is one of 4 Buddhist mountains in China. That is, they are considered holy, and have temples built on them. Emei is the biggest though, and has a staircase all the way from the bottom to the top. It climbs 2,500 metres in the process. It is also famous for containing wild monkeys. These monkeys are something of an icon for the park (in which the mountain is contained) and were pretty much the main attraction for me. I'd heard many tales about them. Described variously as "about the size of pit-bulls" and "vicious little bastards", they are reputedly able to steal the bag off your back, let alone any food you may be carrying in bags in your hands. You are told to be ultra-careful against these little thieves, and the monkey protocol involves opening your hands palms down to show your lack of food. I had not heard, until I stayed at the hostel, that your walking stick could be used as a weapon/form of defence.

Written on the walls of the hostel were words of advice from previous travellers. A few stuck in my mind, such as:
- "there are supposed to be some lovely views. I didn't see any because I was counting steps (I'm autistic). There are 66,321."
- "a good tip for the monkeys: carry a rock with you and pretend to throw it at them. It should send them scurrying for cover. Of course, don't actually throw the rock...."
- and my favourite, written by brits proudly naming their homeland under their signatures, was this: "don't hit the monkeys too hard with your walking sticks. We did, and the poor chap died right in front of us..."

The more I thought about it, the worse it got. Especially the "we" part, which I hadn't even noticed originally. Surely it only takes one person to shoo away a monkey, especially if you're beating it with a stick. But two of you? That sounded more like a gangland killing. And how hard would you have to hit one to kill it??! I now had images of two men wielding their walking sticks like baseball bats, pounding an already wounded and immobile monkey to death on the floor, before kicking it off the path into the undergrowth. Needless to say, my expected encounter with the monkeys had already caught my imagination. And I knew where I'd find them. Andy had helpfully marked the 'joking monkey sections' on the map for me. I just hoped that they wouldn't nick my camera if I got it out to photo them. However, I now had a carte-blanche to beat them with my walking stick. What an opportunity! Just as long as I didn't beat them to death of course. But apparently even then it's ok. Such is the spirit that built an Empire!

I got the first bus the next morning to a section of the mountain that would allow me to get to a temple near to the top by the evening. Of course, Andy didn't recommend this, but what the hell did he know? Due to the nature of the first section of the mountain (going up and down in equal measures) it would still require a climb of well over 2,000 metres. Which sounded like a hell of a lot to me. However, being dropped off with a massive Chinese tour-group spurred me on to a lightning start. But the temple that we were dropped off at would be the last landmark I would recognise. Trusting in the nature of having to go up to reach the top of something, I pressed on regardless. The occasional piece of (hopefully) monkey-shit on the ground got me tense and ready for confrontation. But after 4 hours I'd found nothing.

It was at this point I came across a Chinese student. Desperate to know if I was on the right track, I foolishly asked him where we were on the map. I had apparently now made a binding contract to spend (at least) the rest of my day with him. After telling me I'd already gone 15 km, I thanked him and left, only to discover that he was already right by my side. Though it was nice to have some company for the climb and a translator, the constant stopping to have people take photos of us together had me slightly un-nerved. I conveyed to my new best friend my desire to see the monkeys. Did he have any idea what had happened to them? All he could say was that the monkeys were very bad, and I was lucky to have avoided them. He told me they would try and open my backpack. I proudly tapped the heavy-duty padlock that Mrs J had insisted I take. This impressed him.

Near the top we came to a sign telling us that this was a monkey area and to be very careful. Needless to say, I was ready for them. There was also a temple. I asked my friend what the sign on the temple said. He said he couldn't translate it. Jokingly, I said,"it's the monkeys temple?"
This was met with a deadpan face.
"No, temple for people. Monkeys in trees, people in temple."
"Right, right"
Long pause.
"So, no monkey buddhists then?"
"No. Monkeys in trees."
"Oh, ok."

And then we stumbled across them. What an anticlimax. They were just sitting there eating some fruit or something, with a small crowd of people trying to take photos without risking their cameras. Occasionally, one guy would go to the front with some dried flower, and show it to the monkeys. This, they did not like. Not one bit. They hissed, bared their teeth and backed off. I really, really wanted to get my hands on one of those things, but I had to settle for a few photos and no monkey fighting.

We were that close to the top by this point, that I thought we'd press on and do it all in a day, working our way down the next day. It's probably also worth mentioning the fog. This was so thick, that by the time we did actually reach the top, we couldn't even see the 20 metre high golden statue when we were standing right in front of it. There was just a golden haze. And the fog also meant no panoramic views. I did, however, manage to make a few people's days. By the statue there was a group of about 6 Chinese students - one lad and 5 girls. They wanted a group photo with me. I obliged, and then found out that each wanted 2 solo pictures with me too. So I stood there for about 5 minutes with this fixed grin on my face, while the students each took their turns pulling various poses around me, as though I was some kind of landmark. The usual 'V' peace signs; arms spread wide open; arms up to the sky etc etc. On the way back down, there were no free beds at the nearest temples, so I caught a bus back to the hostel from a nearby stop. The weather was even worse the next day, so I decided to head back to Chengdu.

written by  olliejohnson on August 21, 2006 from Baoguosi, China
from the travel blog: A man from Cockshutt.
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