{"id":262,"date":"2008-04-07T12:36:06","date_gmt":"2008-04-07T03:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matero.net\/?p=262"},"modified":"2008-04-07T12:36:06","modified_gmt":"2008-04-07T03:36:06","slug":"day-294-mount-emei-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/?p=262","title":{"rendered":"Day 294 – Mount Emei, China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emei Shan<\/a>, as it is called in Chinese, is 3077m or 10100ft high. I decided to take the bus most of the way (2400m) and then walk the rest. The two hour bus ride was nice, winding along a river up the mountain. I knew it was going to be cold at the top, so I put on nearly every piece of clothing I had. When I got off the bus, there was a spot where you could rent a coat, but since I was walking up I figured I’d be warm enough in the near freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n

The walk up was dangerous at times. A few days earlier there was freezing rain on the mountain so the trees were covered with ice. Today was a little warmer, so the ice was melting and falling off the trees onto the people below. I thought this is like walking up a skyscraper in a hail storm! I must have passed 50 people since I was walking up the stairs fast with little rest.<\/p>\n

When I took the bus up, I noticed we went through a layer of clouds, so you could see clouds below. Then when I started walking, I started entering an even thicker layer of clouds. So there was snow on the ground, and so foggy you couldn’t see much of anything for a while. I was close to going through the entire winter without touching or seeing snow, but now I can tell everyone back home in Michigan that I did experience snow, for one day this year.<\/p>\n

After a while, the sun started shining again as I passed through the layer of clouds. It is kind of amazing doing this on land. I’ve only gone through cloud layers on a plane before. It was nice to see a clear sky and the sun, but this also meant the ice was melting even faster on the trees and now it was like I was in heavy rain. I had no hat or umbrella since I wasn’t expecting anything like this!<\/p>\n

Finally, I’m a little wet and tired, but I reach the summit. I get above all that Chinese haze and clouds and I can feel strong sunshine for once! It is so clear I can see Mount Gongga<\/a>, over 100km away, and what looks like some mountains of the Himalayas to the west. I look down and I view the “Sea of Clouds” below stretching out as far as I can see. The other side of the mountain has a cliff face that falls vertically into the clouds. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It was like I was on an island on the ocean.<\/p>\n

There were a few temples up here and a huge 11 headed golden statue of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva riding 4 elephants with each having 6 pairs of tusks. I saw a man pointing up. I looked up and saw a 360 degree rainbow circling the sun. Not everyone gets to see this, but it is a phenomenon called “Buddha’s Halo” that occurs up here when conditions are right.<\/p>\n

Not too many foreigners know about this place but I think it is one of the best sights in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emei Shan, as it is called in Chinese, is 3077m or 10100ft high. I decided to take the bus most of the way (2400m) and then walk the rest. The two hour bus ride was nice, winding along a river up the mountain. I knew it was going to be cold at the top, so … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Day 294 – Mount Emei, China”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matero.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}