Mount Emei (Emeishan), Sichuan, China

5Ali Gulsen 5:00 PM Jul 1, 2021

one of 4 sacred mountains of Buddhism in China
we climbed up starting from Wuxiangang at 8.30 AM arrived to Golden summit around 7PM in 8 hours moving time. the total hiking distance was 14km in Google maps, 14km in Baidu maps. my GPS device is very accurate and measured 20km. according to the distance signs on the hike, the same distance was measured constantly 40km. I believe Chinese local authorities double up the distance to give realistic feeling of time to hikers. because in 20 km we climbed 3 km vertically. in other words, every 6 meters we gained 1 meter altitude. that certainly lowered our speed to 2.5km hour. we stayed around the lake Wuxiangang entrance / bus stop of Emeishan on purpose to save some kilometers of hiking distance from the bottom as well as to be close to the hiking path. from gate to Wuxiangang was measured to be 12 km by local authorities. so I think the real distance should be 6km and 2 hours on foot.

5Frédéric 5:00 PM Mar 30, 2020

Incredible sceneries
I went there alone and chose to hike Emeishan in one day, having already some experience in hiking chinese mountains (yellow mount,zhangjiajie...) It's really difficult but possible to do it in one day and plus you'll see no rude Chinese locals on your journey since they all take the bus+cable car. I started at 8:30 am from Wuxiangang and finished at 6pm on the Golden Summit. Rather hike on the left side than the right because you'll see more sceneries (but it's also 3x longer I'd say). During winter, witnessing the change from green at the bottom to white in high altitude is truly magical (be careful, it becomes slippery). I'd advise you to stay overnight at one of the many temples (50RMB/night) and wake up early to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately for me, it was too cloudy...