Emei Shan

The plan wasto get to Wolong, we were told we had to change bus at a place we cant remember. The bus driver stopped on a road which seemed like the middle of no where no buildings (intact anyway). We had been driving passed where the Epicenter of the Earthwuake last year was and it now appears to be the largest construction job in the world. We passed a city that still had large amounts of derelict buildings. The Chinease are putting up huge blocks of flats before removing the debris. There are still lots of Shanty towns in these areas I suppose the flats are for those people. Only by being here can I understand the extent of the Earthquake. Either side of this city and other communities in the area are huge mountains. Most of these landslided into the Valley bellow (where the communities are based) There are still roads completley covered by this landslide and we saw a car being excavated why we passed. It was a bizare sight electric pylons still lay toppled on the ground many tunnels through the mountain still lie entombed. It seems the focus is on the survivors and getting there lives back together before cleaning up. Any way,we stayed on the bus until we got to the next city which was only 15 minuetes away. We were told there is a busthat goes to Wolong from there though we had to backtack a little. We were not allowed tickets to Wolong apparently the Earthquake area is off limits to tourists. Ian was a little annoyed Wolong is the place to see a variety of Chinas pheasants. Instead we jumped on a bus back to Chengdu and stayed a couple of days, meeting up with old friends and exchanging stories over cheap beer (30p a pint.)

Our next destination was Emei shan (aka Omei.) This is a buddhist holy mountain, famous for its monks, monkeys, clouded views and a certain species of liocichla. At the hostel we stayed at before our trek we were talking to different people who had just done it. The most popular route seemed to be to get a bus to the top and then cable car the last bit to the summit before treking down. Another popular route was to take a bus passed the foothills and then asscend. Emily wanted to get the bus up but Ian heard his brother in his head saying "cop out." So instead we did the whole trek up and then got a bus down. Ian even made emily do the trek up and down and up and down the foot hills (which were mountains in there own right at over 1000m.) Ian managed to change the date on our "student cards" in a very bluepeter way using a piece of shiny carboard and engraving the year on it. It worked, half price entry. The trek was hard but nothing like Kerinchi. It was stone steps all the way and the mountain isn't as high at only 3096m though the trek there is much further We hiked for about 8 hours a day. We stayed two nights on the mountain in Buddhist temples with the monks which was quite an experiance itself. unfortunatley the monks constantly hit a gong through the night and there was drumming at around 5am. The second temple we stayed in had a nice legend behind it, the name translated as elephant bathing pool and it is the site where one of the gods flew his elephant and stopped to bathe it here. (there is just a pond here now.) Wildlife was good if you discounted the Tibetan macaques that would patrol around in massive numbers and would try to jump on you, bite and steal whatever belongings were on you. Emily had a stick to help with the climb up which was quite a useful weapon (though we didnt hit the devil macaques, swinging it a few times made them back off.) The birds of best mention here were lots of pekin robins, and also a single sighting of an Omei shan liocichila. Birders had told us that it was hard to see on Emei and much easier on the mountain called Wawu shan though at the same time they said it is much more satisfying to see them on Emei. Some other sightings included black bulbul (white headed) and white-collared yuhina. unfortunatley because Omei isnt that high the clouds really hung over it and their were no views above 1500m. The first day was clear though there were alot of people on the trails (few if any treking to the top.) The second day we were entombed in cloud, and the third day was very heavy rain. We were glad of the ponchos. After getting the bus down we washed (we proper stank) and stayed the night before getting a sleeper train to Kunming.

And that is really our China trip. Arriving in Kunming in Yunnan province we were debating about extending our visa for another month and probably would of if it didnt take 3-4 working days we already had handed our passport to the Vietnamese embassy to get our Visas which took 5 days and we couldnt really go anwhere far without the passport which is needed to legally stay in a hostel or hotel. Ideally we wanted to explore the famous Dali and Shangri la, tiger leaping gorge, Gongshan to the North West (which is where new birds to China are always turning up.) and Xishuangbanna to the South, Full of Rainforest birds and Elephants are often seen. That would of taken a month to do it justice, maybe another time. China has been expensive compared to South East Asia and while I write this we are looking forward to our next leg; Vietnam