Ironwulf.net Ver 6: En Route

I never knew that staging an exhibit can be quite a bit of work, but it has been a great learning experience for me as well. Since I was preoccupied last week on organizing and coordinating I never found much time to do a post. For now, I’ll share this article I wrote for Tulay, a Chinese-Filipino Fortnightly Digest. This digest as it slogan wrote “A bridge of understanding between two cultures; a bridge of tolerance between ages”.

The word Emeishan literally means “Delicate Eyebrow Mountain” describing the quality of its two peaks at the summit. Continuing from where we left, alighting at the Cable Car Station, it is still a few minutes hike at the altitude of around 3000+meters above sea level. At that height, even with the sun already high up in the sky beating down on us, the temperature was still cold, but still ebarable enough without a gloves if have high tolerance for the cold.

Emeishan (Mt Emei, Mt O-mei or Emei Shan 峨嵋山 ) is one of the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism in China. Located in Sichuan Province, South West of China, it shares its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation with Leshan’s Giant Buddha. Standing at 3,099m above sea level, it boasts of breath taking views, mysterious natural wonders and historical Buddhist Sites which makes it one of China’s popular tourist destination. And this morning we start our ascent to this sacred mountain.

The drive from Leshan Giant Buddha Park to Emeishan City took at least an hour. I didn’t notice much since I was half asleep during the ride and didn’t see much of the way. I noticed that gasoline prices here are very cheap that’s why most transpo here are cheap as well. They said that the government dictates the prices of their commodity that is why as I remember. When I came to, we were entering a small street with eatery at the side. I was told that we were gonna check out this recommended hotel by our van. So we did out of courtesy.

Continuing on, from the Leshan Buddha Park trail, we are now headed to the actual site of Giant Buddha. The Giant Buddha was carved beside the red sandstones of Mount Lingyun at the eastern part of Leshan City in Sichuan facing the Dadu river. It is still part of China’s Mount Emei Scenic Area and Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We only spent a night at Chongqing and the next day we moved on westward to Leshan. Found at the south west portion of Sichuan Province, Leshan, which means “Happy Mountain” is home to a pair of another UNESCO World Heritage sites. Both sites Emei Shan and Leshan Giant Buddha are a mix of cultural and natural areas. Our first stop was the latter. So after checking out of Nanbin Hostel, we went out to the rainy morning streets, took a cab back to Caiyuan Ba Bus Station.

After setting our stuff at Nanbin Youth Hostel in Chongqing Municipality, we didn’t want to waste time that afternoon so we headed to Caiyuan Ba bus station to get tickets to Dazu County 大足县 and visit one of the most important Cultural Heritage Sites in China, the Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻, which is also included in China’s numerous list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.