Mount Emei (Emeishan)

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Mount Emei Scenic Area, Including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area, 1996); One Of The Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains; National 5A Tourist Attraction · Emeishan, Sichuan

One of the Four Sacred Mountains of Chinese Buddhism and the seat of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra: a forested massif rising from the Sichuan plain to the 3,079-metre Golden Summit, where a 48-metre gilded statue of the bodhisattva on elephants stands above a sea of clouds. Nearly two thousand years of monasteries line the climb, from Baoguo Temple at the foot to Wannian Temple's 10th-century bronze Samantabhadra and the cliff-edge Golden Summit temples. On lucky mornings visitors see sunrise over the cloud sea, the rainbow halo called Buddha's Light, and the distant snow peak of Gongga. Tibetan macaques patrol the middle trails. It forms a UNESCO World Heritage site with the Leshan Giant Buddha, about an hour from Chengdu by high-speed train.

Golden Summit, Emeishan Scenic Area, Emeishan, Sichuan, China

Daily, year-round. Ticket gates open early morning (roughly 6:00-18:00); buses and cable cars run from before dawn in peak season for sunrise. Summit hotels and temples stay open overnight.

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