The hook
One of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains, temples and monasteries climbing through cloud forest to a golden summit above a sea of cloud, with troops of bold macaques along the way, and, an hour off, a Buddha carved 71 metres tall into a river cliff.
01Why it's worth it
Emeishan rises from the Sichuan plain to over 3,000 metres, and pilgrims have climbed it for two thousand years past a chain of working monasteries where you can still stay the night. The reward at the top, the Golden Summit with its gilded temple, is a famous sunrise above a sea of cloud, sometimes with a "Buddha's halo" rainbow. The forest is thick and wet, home to bands of Tibetan macaques that are notoriously pushy about food, part of the mountain's character and a real nuisance if you're careless. Nearby Leshan holds the counterpart: the largest pre-modern Buddha statue in the world, carved into the sandstone cliff at the meeting of three rivers in the 8th century, so big that boats look like toys at its feet. Together they make one of the richest cultural-natural pairings in the southwest, and both are UNESCO-listed.
02How to experience it
Climb Emeishan over a day or two with a monastery overnight (or use buses and the cable car for the summit), timing the top for dawn, and keep food zipped away from the monkeys. Add Leshan as a half-day trip to stand beneath the Giant Buddha or see it from the river. Both are easy from Chengdu.
From the locals
Travellers arguing that China's depth is cultural, not just its skylines, reach for exactly these: alongside the great grottoes and temples, one noted, "there are holy mountains covered with dozens of temples each all over China," the sacred peaks like Emei that reward the climb.