Emei Shan Hike: Trekking in Sichuan Province, China

Emei Shan, one of the four sacred mountains of Buddhism in China, is the most famous trek in Sichuan Province. It’s known for its snow during winter and the beautiful above-the-cloud views that can be seen from the peak, which sits at an altitude of 3,099 meters.. So, if you want to do the Mount Emei Shan hike yourself, minimizing the usage of cable cars and buses, here are all the details. 

Like all well-known mountains (and hills) in China, Emei Shan has been made incredibly accessible to anyone who doesn’t wish to do the whole (or even partial) hike. A bus is available to take you to Leidongping, a town situated 7 kilometers from the top. You can then take a cable car from Leidongping to the peak. So if you don’t wish to hike or have very limited time, you actually don’t have to: but be prepared to shell out a pretty penny for all of these accommodations.

Of course, if you know anything about me, you’ll know that I love hiking and prefer to torture myself than take the easy way out. However, in this case I did compromise: My friend and I only had two days to do the Emei Shan hike, so we decided to hike the way up (about 52 kilometers), and then take the available transportation down. This satiated our desire for aching legs and also allowed us to make it back to our job in time.

How Many Days Do You Need? 

My friend and I spent 2 days, 1 night at Emeishan. Before going on our trip, we kept reading blog after blog advising us to take the bus to Leidongping and then only hike the 7 kilometers to the top. Feeling somewhat disheartened and worried that we couldn’t hike all the way up, we decided to try anyway. We needed the second day to descend and also catch a train back to Chengdu (1 hour) and then Chongqing (a little under 2 hours from Chengdu). We decided to hike up and then take transportation down: challenging, but doable with the time we had.

The trek up Emei Shan isn’t easy. If you haven’t hiked in China yet, be prepared for steps and more steps. Hikes here are very rarely dirt paths: they’re always steps, especially if Buddhist temples are involved. But we were able to do the bulk of the hike up in one day (45 km), and theoretically could’ve made it to the top. However, we decided to rest in Leidongping and rise early before sunrise to do the last 2-hour, 7 km portion of the hike up. So yes, it’s doable to do what we did.

However, if you utilize transportation both ways you could make this into a day trip, but I don't advise doing that. Enjoy the mountain for what it is: a mountain. Or if you have three days, well, make it a party and hike both up and down!

Getting to Emeishan from Chengdu

We chose to stay the night in Chengdu from Chongqing to cut off a portion of the journey. Chengdu to Emeishan is an easy high-speed rail ride away, and takes around an hour to arrive. Trains leave from Chengdu East (Chengdu dong) and arrive at Emeishan throughout the day, but we chose the earliest option: 6:12 a.m. 

Once you arrive at the Emeishan train station, you can directly purchase your entrance ticket to Emeishan and take a bus to the starting point – no need to go to the nearby town first, which is incredibly convenient. 

While most people boarded the bus to go straight to Leidongping (takes about two hours), we chose the smaller bus to take us to Wuxiangang, which is a few kilometers up from the ticket entrance office of Emeishan. 

We waited a few minutes for the bus to Wuxiangang, and then were on our way. The bus took around a half hour. All in all, we started hiking at about 8:00 a.m.

Cost of Doing the Emei Shan Hike

I’m listing all the options because I don’t know what you’ll want to do, but the only required one is the Emeishan entrance fee (and you’ll probably be leaving from Chengdu, so most likely the train ticket as well).

Don’t worry: You don’t have to buy round-trip bus tickets from the train station: if you choose to take the bus later when you’re descending, you can buy a ticket in Leidongping, which is what we ended up doing. 

Alternatively, if you want to get an even earlier start than we did, you can choose to stay at the base of Emeishan in the town conveniently also called Emeishan. 

What to Pack for a Winter Hike Up Emeishan

If you’re going during winter, it gets cold. You’ll need basic winter gear: hat, gloves, scarf, winter jacket, wool socks and hiking boots. Bring extra layers: even though it’s cold, you’ll still be exerting yourself and sweating – if your clothes get sweaty, you’ll want to have extra options to change into. Cold and wet is not good! The Golden Summit was especially cold, and very windy. 

Wool socks and hiking boots are key: although the boots will feel clunky at first going up stairs, you’ll be grateful later when it gets cold and slippery. Additionally, you can buy cheap crampons from different vendors as you go up (my friend bought some for 10 yuan). I bought a 3 yuan bamboo stick at the beginning, and loved it for some additional support. 

Additionally, you’ll want to bring lunch and snacks. There are some options on the way up, but again the higher you go the less options you’ll see, until you get to the town of Leidongping. 

Where to Stay Overnight

Options are pretty frequent: most monasteries offer basic accommodations, and there are also hotels in Leidongping – you could find a 2-bed option for about 150 yuan a night. Monasteries are cheaper (usually 30-50 yuan for a bed), but usually aren’t heated so come prepared with layers. There are a few monasteries that are only a couple kilometers from the top if you want to stay as close to the peak as possible. 

Hiking Emei Shan: Measuring the Distance

Starting from Wuxiangang, there are two different hiking paths that lead you to the top of Emei Shan. The more common route (and the one that requires slightly less exertion) requires you to take a left at the Qingyin Pavilion and head towards the Monkey Area.

The hiking path is very nicely labeled, so you can follow the signs throughout to make sure you’re going the right way. As you hike, the signs get fewer and fewer so if you’re one that needs to know checkpoints and distances, screenshot this part: 

As stated before, this hike isn’t easy. A large portion of the journey is uphill, and your heart will drop every time you round a corner and see even more stairs. Slow and steady really does win the race: once your heartbeat is in check, you should be fine. 

Who Can Do the Emei Shan Hike?

If you want to do what we did and hike from Wuxiangang, you’ll need to be at a moderate level of fitness and have some endurance. We’re no fitness gurus, but are in decent shape. The first day we started hiking at about 8:00 a.m. and arrived in Leidongping a little before 6:00 p.m. So, we did 10 hours of hiking the first day and another 2 the second day to get to the top. The second day we took the cable car and bus back down to the Emeishan Train Station. You could also reverse this and take transportation up, then hike down. 

If you want to hike Emei Shan both up and down, bear in mind that in some parts it may actually be slower going down due to the ice patches – so, don’t assume that you can cut off a huge chunk of time descending. I really think three days is needed to do the complete hike both ways. Alternatively, you could complete the hike in two days and stay in the nearby town the last night. 

However, as mentioned above there are certainly other options if you don’t think you can make it. But do know that if you start the hike, you’ll have to make it to Leidongping before there’s the cable car option. The path never intersects with the bus road, so you can't change your mind.

What I’d Do Differently

I loved completing the Emei shan hike and wouldn’t change much at all. However, I don’t think it was worth it to hike early to the top to try and see the sunrise. The sunrise at Emeishan is known to be beautiful, especially on a clear day – and it still was, but I don’t think it was worth it. At least not in mid-December. Going later would mean it’s less cold and that there may be more visibility if the clouds part.

Also, I wish I had packed more layers – as stated before, I was sweating a lot while hiking. My back was sweaty, and when I arrived at the Golden Summit I was cold – and wet. And since I had stopped hiking, I felt the cold a lot more. This can be dangerous if you’re out in the cold like that for awhile – so make sure you pack warm layers that you can get rid of and add back on as you please.