Adventures on the Mountain of Beautiful Eyebrows

Emeishan is a beautiful mountain, supposedly shaped like a beautiful pair of eyebrows. Its world famous sunrise made it a popular retreat for Daoists thousands of years ago. Daoism today has 5 sacred mountains which together form a square with a point in the middle. When Buddhism came to China during the Han Dynasty, the Buddhist copied the Daoist mountain tradition and selected four mountians forming no particular shape, giving each one to a particular Buddhist saint. Emeishan was named for Puxian Pusa, and the mountains shrines are decorated with his patron animal, the elephant (though these elephants are white and have six tusks). It has four famous attractions. Two of which I witnessed (the forming of a sea of clouds below the the peak, and the sunrise which is beautiful beyong anything I could have ever imagined. The mountain his home to dozens of temples and shrines, hundreds of inns, hotels, and cafes, thousands of tourists, and a level of development that surpasses Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. For instance, the entire trail (up this 12,000 footer), is paved with stone steps and wooden handrails, a boon for the many senior citizens who climb the mountain. The mountain also has buses that can get you near the top, and cable cars and porters who can take you all the way up. Many of the temples were looted by the British, Japanese, and Red Guards. One of the greatest treats of the mountain are the hundreds of Tibetan Macaques who try to steal people's food. They are very cute and the mountain was there home before humans came there. The scenery gradually changes from subtropical with pom trees, heat, and humidity, to temperate with bamboo groves, to something that reminded me of New Hampshire, to barren and cold, even in August (winter coats can be rented on the top). In all my life, I have never seen anything as beautiful as this mountain. The scenery on the trail was on par with Mount Chicorua in New Hampshire, but the view from peak was fantastic, stretching to the Tibetan plateau in the west.

My student identification card got me cheap access to the National Park (Y80). On the hike to the first sight (thousand years monastary), I met three lovely ladies. Two from Chongqing, one from Yunnan. We chatted for a while. They gave me some snacks. I gave them some of the treats Li Cheng's family had packed for me. They turned back after the first sight (they had taken the bus and cable car to the peak earlier in the morning). I continued up the mountain and soon befriended a bunch of college age students from Sichuan. By nightfall we were eleven. We camped out at Taiziping monastery. This was a real monastery, and the monks were not particular welcoming of foreigners (earlier foreigners had given them a bad impression, probably loud and rude). But I told them I was a Kazakh minority from Western China, and did a traditional palms together greating. "Praise St. Puxian" I said in Chinese, and they let us stay. Two to a bed,Y15 a piece. They gave us some free books. Rose at 4 in the morning. Washed our faces. Hiked to the top and watched the sunrise. On the trip down we were only four. Me, a man from Hunan (now living in Beijing), and two college students from Chengdu (one was an English major who spoke good English). The English major said to call him Hans (like the Han people, but also a German name). I talked in Chinese, him in English so we could both practice. A lot of people starred at us as we walked. He liked cigarettes, cigars, 60's American folk music (including Phil Ochs), Fidel Castro, nature (he taught me the words for Tibetan Macaque and Ultra Violet Radiatio), and hiking. Lost my water bottle when it slipped from my hand and rolled down the mountain. We stopped for the night at an inn ajoining a temple on near the bottom of the monastery. Y30 a person. Slept well. We chatted at night and in the morning. They all thought my Chinese was getting great. The Kazakh minority lie would work on most people we met and gave us a good laugh.

Hans finally decided to talk about his perception of America. He loves 60's folk music, Emerson, American culture, and his two American friends: me and a guy in Chengdu. The friend in Chengdu was an old hippie who's brother died from Agent Orange back in Vietnam. He talked about the War in Iraq and the old war in Vietnam. He said its scarry to here Americans talk about Human Rights in China. They were talking about Human Rights in Iraq before the bombs fell. Now the Iraqis have plenty of rights - in the cemetary. He talked about what he saw as the Peace of the Chinese people. Farmers for thousans of years, they have seen war for centuries and love only peace and stability. Their hearts are with the land, the trees, and the harmony of the World. He's scared for the future of his rapidly changing country, but all in all feels the reforms of the 1980's did China good. As we talked, things grew increasingly tense, finally I burst out into my rendition of the Cultural Revolution song about American Imperialism, everyone laughed and the mood became less tense.

In the morning we reached the intersection of two rivers by the foot of the mountain. we waded in the crystal clear water, and relaxed. At the bus station we smoked cigars to celebrate. I embraced Hans. We sang "One Tin Soldier". We bargained with a cab driver to take us to Leshan. In Leshan we boarded a peasant's motorboat for Y2 to see the Leshan Giant Buddha (to enter the actual park would have been Y80 and would have made seeing the statue in its entirety impossible. Also got to see part of rural southern China in the strip of land across from the statue. Reminded me of someone in Latin America. Bronzed old men smoking cigars, wearing straw hats and open white shirts. The statue was amazing, watched from an abandoned old building, once a hotel. Now the World's largest statue of its kind (the others were bombed by the Taliban in Afghanistan), the statue is over a thousand years old. Made it back to Chengdu by evening, parted with my comrades and brothers. Made my way back to Li Cheng's apartment, smelling like a horse and still holding my bamboo staff. Tiantian was thrilled to see me. I showered and his parents fed me. The next morning I boarded the T8 back to Beijing.