Horray for Emishan!

Finally, a place in China that agrees with us.
After leaving tourist and shopper filled Xi'an, we took a night train to Chengdu, home of the Panda Research Center... only to find that buying a panda on the blackmarket would be slightly cheaper than trying to get to see one in China on our own. Apparently, because of the demand the government has upped the ticket price and has required everyone to go through a chartered Chinese tour in order to get to the Center. "Demand", "Ticket", and "Chartered" are all words we can't afford. So sadly, no pandas were hugged or even viewed. The mission of this blog will have to change... any suggestions?
Chengdu was a huge city, of roughly 11 million people, as most Chinese cities are turning out to be. Xi'an had 109 million. We were getting pretty sick of cities, and Chengdu was not turning on any of the much touted charm we were promised by our guide book. We took a small bus to Emishan, home of Mt. Emi, the most important place in Chinese Buddhism. It is a huge series of mountains, dotted with temples and endless stairs for walking up. Most of these stairways were on a 45 degree angle, with little room between their edges and the sheer drop below. We found a wonderful place to stay where the owner speaks English, the food is amazing, and the rooms are reasonable. Named the "Teddy Bear Hotel", the owner, Andy gave us endless advice on hiking the mountain. The first day we took a short hike to a small temple and a monkey viewing area. Like all monkeys seem to be, they were not very friendly. The next day we went to the top of the mountain to see the temples there. As it is so far up it was covered in rolling clouds, but it was beautiful and quite. After the temple we hiked down until dark and spent the night at another small temple. The next day we continued to hike down the mountain and reached Teddy Bear Hotel by 4pm. It was exhausting, our legs are killing us, but it was such a nice change of pace from the cities we have been in. We are taking today to recover and enjoy the hospitality and good food made by our host. Tomorrow we are taking an overnight train to Kunming, and then in three days we will be crossing the boarder into Vietnam.
As of now I am having photos uploading our photos. Hopefully I will be able to get some posted online by tomorrow.