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Our family, consisting of my wife and two adult children, were invited to teach business and English courses at Guangxi University in Nanning, capital of southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. We decided to go a month earlier to be able to travel and see parts of China before we started teaching in September, 2011. The month we spent traveling in China was a dream come true. We had a fabulous experience. One week of our traveling was spent with Habitat for Humanity in Zhuyuan Town of Sichuan Province, building housing for families who had lost their homes and loved ones in the earthquake in May 2008. Habitat for Humanity builds homes all over the world for the less fortunate. We spent the week digging, stacking bricks, sifting sand and doing other jobs to help finish a major housing project.
After the habitat project, we decided to head south to the Emei Mountain, a scenic spot in Sichuan. Emei is a beautiful mountain with numerous trails, many of which lead to various Buddha temples. We took a beautiful route that followed a river coming down from the mountains. Our goal was to get halfway up or more before dark and sleep at Xianfeng Temple. The mountain has excellent stone pathways and railings combined with fir, pine and cedar trees along the way. We were amazed at how beautiful and clear the river was and enjoyed several majestic waterfalls. The views were magnificent and the mist that came in as we hiked up and up made it appear very majestic.
A special treat was a section called the Ecological Monkey Zone where wild monkeys wait for the tourists to come walking by. Our son especially wanted to see the monkeys. When we reached a certain section of the trail, sure enough we encountered wild monkeys trying to steal food or objects from our backpacks. One managed to jump on our son’s back and grab a packet of nuts and proceeded to open and eat them. We were amazed at their dexterity. Another monkey grabbed a tourist’s soda pop right from the side of his backpack and then proceeded to open the bottle and drink the contents. We had some great camera shots with our new friends and even some scary moments with these overly ambitious monkeys. Night was starting to fall and we seemed only to confront one new section of steps after the other.
As fog and night were setting in we finally reached Xianfeng Temple. After checking in we were served a hot meal, given a tub of hot water to warm our feet and taken to a very modest and somewhat undesirable room. After settling in we were finally able to get a few hours of sleep. In the morning we began hiking the many steps again to the top. We finally reached a point to go down the mountain or finish the hike to the summit. After a full day and a half of hiking we decided to hike back down the mountain. The return hike never seemed to end. How could we have hiked up so many steps? We began to wonder if it would ever end. By this time, our legs had turned to rubber, the bamboo sticks we used to hike with no longer seemed to help and the beautiful river was no longer in sight. Finally after much difficulty we heard the blessed sound of the cable car to take us down the last part of the mountain. We were thrilled that we had met the Emei challenge and reached the bottom safely. We will never forget our time on the Emei Mountain, beautiful trees, cloudkissing precipices, wild monkeys and yes, one step after another. That’s the Emei Mountain challenge.
After the habitat project, we decided to head south to the Emei Mountain, a scenic spot in Sichuan. Emei is a beautiful mountain with numerous trails, many of which lead to various Buddha temples. We took a beautiful route that followed a river coming down from the mountains. Our goal was to get halfway up or more before dark and sleep at Xianfeng Temple. The mountain has excellent stone pathways and railings combined with fir, pine and cedar trees along the way. We were amazed at how beautiful and clear the river was and enjoyed several majestic waterfalls. The views were magnificent and the mist that came in as we hiked up and up made it appear very majestic.
A special treat was a section called the Ecological Monkey Zone where wild monkeys wait for the tourists to come walking by. Our son especially wanted to see the monkeys. When we reached a certain section of the trail, sure enough we encountered wild monkeys trying to steal food or objects from our backpacks. One managed to jump on our son’s back and grab a packet of nuts and proceeded to open and eat them. We were amazed at their dexterity. Another monkey grabbed a tourist’s soda pop right from the side of his backpack and then proceeded to open the bottle and drink the contents. We had some great camera shots with our new friends and even some scary moments with these overly ambitious monkeys. Night was starting to fall and we seemed only to confront one new section of steps after the other.
As fog and night were setting in we finally reached Xianfeng Temple. After checking in we were served a hot meal, given a tub of hot water to warm our feet and taken to a very modest and somewhat undesirable room. After settling in we were finally able to get a few hours of sleep. In the morning we began hiking the many steps again to the top. We finally reached a point to go down the mountain or finish the hike to the summit. After a full day and a half of hiking we decided to hike back down the mountain. The return hike never seemed to end. How could we have hiked up so many steps? We began to wonder if it would ever end. By this time, our legs had turned to rubber, the bamboo sticks we used to hike with no longer seemed to help and the beautiful river was no longer in sight. Finally after much difficulty we heard the blessed sound of the cable car to take us down the last part of the mountain. We were thrilled that we had met the Emei challenge and reached the bottom safely. We will never forget our time on the Emei Mountain, beautiful trees, cloudkissing precipices, wild monkeys and yes, one step after another. That’s the Emei Mountain challenge.