Mount Emei

Mount EmeiThe picture to the left is still something I find myself looking at weeks later. It was taken by me on the summit of Mount Emei during NYU in Shanghai's first of two week-long breaks. Mount Emei hosts the location of the first Buddhist temple built in China in the 1st century CE. We went on a 5 day trip to the city of Chengdu in China's Sichuan province. The first couple of days consisted of us looking at Pandas and trying some of the world's spiciest dishes. On day 3 all 24 of us woke up early to board a bus headed to Mount Emei, albeit half of us were recovering from the night before. The bus drove an hour up the mountain, turning along with the twisting road. The ascend caused motion sickness and vomiting throughout the bus. The bus reached the furthest point of accessibility and we were all relieved to finally have our feet on ground again. We understood that from this point it would take at least two hours of climbing until we reach the summit. Two hours may not seem like a long time frame, but you don't realize the length until you're actually climbing for two hours. We passed by wild monkeys begging for food and stealing from people along the trail. I put Vivaldi on my iPod and did my best to block out the rest of the world, even the people I was with.

The hardest part of the climb was the halfway mark when, because of the altitude, the temperature dropped significantly. I wondered how the tour guides were striding along carrying huge camera equipment and even heavier knapsacks. I wondered how the student next to me was going to finish the climb after having just witnessed him vomit twice on the trail. I wondered if it was worth it, as the sweat on my back began to freeze. I stopped wondering, took in the frosted air, clutched my rented jacket tighter, and continued on the climb.

It was worth it. I was in immediate awe of the Ten Directions Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. I sat in disbelief as I watched a woman praying and crying for 20 minutes. We stayed in a hotel on the summit for one night and took the cable-car down. A 2 hour climb was contrasted by a 2 minute ride down as we descended through clouds. We made our way past the wild monkeys as one stole a bottle with particular significance from a NYU in Shanghai student. The bottle contained a special concoction of “Chungle Juice” for which many of us in the program were almost put on probation for.