Mount Emei (Emeishan)

After visiting the Giant Buddha, we hopped on a bus to Emei. We arrived in a nice, small mountain town and planned our following day's hike up the mountain. After an early rise (5:30 am), we were walking the trails well ahead of the masses that would come several hours later.

We had an amazing hike up the beautiful trails alongside the rivers and waterfalls, and apart from a few run-ins with some crazy, attacking, mountain monkeys, had a very peaceful and rewarding hike. We climbed for several hours with hardly anyone else around us but on our way back down, we ran into thousands of Chinese tourists snapping photos and clogging up the narrow pathways. We were super happy that we had an early start and were able to enjoy all of the wonderful scenes on our own.

Despite being near freezing cold, Michael decided that it was due time for a swim. "There's just something about waterfalls and pools of clear water that makes me want to swim." Michael -->

















Can you find Mark? (It's like 'Where's Waldo' but in China and with Mark instead of Waldo!) -->




<-- These are the crazy monkeys who wouldn't let us pass. We were told to show them rocks and sticks to scare them off but when Allison tried to threaten them with her stick, the boldest one took hold of it and she got scared and let him have it. Meanwhile, the others were busy jumping on Michael's legs. Mark escaped unscathed. "I'm not sure if i'm shaky beacause of all the walking, or from those damn crazy monkeys!" Allison