We woke and headed to breakfast at 0830 AM. We loaded up the bus and made our way to Emei Shan.

Emei Shan is one of the 4 most sacred Buddhist mountains in China. The undulating peaks, covered with lush forests and green bamboo occupy an area of more than 300 sq km in the southwest of Sichuan province.

Emei Shan is the general name for 3 mountains, Da’e (Great E), Er’e (Second E) and San’e (Third E). The mountains are majestic, quiet and serene and acclaimed in China as “a Beauty under Heaven”.

Visitors are drawn to Emei Shan either as a place of pilgrimage or simply to scale the magnificent heights. Most of the monasteries and temples at Emei Shan were built during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220AD), while others were added later. As a well-known Buddhist sanctuary of Samantabhadra, Emei Shan once had more than 100 monasteries.

The main temples and scenic areas are: Baoguo Monastery, Wannian Monastery, Fuhu (Ambushing Tiger) Monastery, Leiyin (Thunder Sound) Monastery, Chunyang Hall, Qingyin (Pure Tone) Tower, Heilongjiang plank road, Hongchun Ping, Xianfeng (Fairy Peak) Monastery, Xixiang (Wash Elephant) Pool, Golden Summit, Huayan Top, and White Dragon Cave.

When we arrived at Emei, it started to rain lightly. We had the option of taking a cable car to the top or walking. Ryoko took the car. Of a group of 20 or so, only myself, Cheng Jie, his uncle and older cousin put our legs to use. We sweated so much that the rain didn’t matter, but I felt good to use my body.

Cheng Jie is 16. He is from Beijing, but is visiting his uncle in ChengDu during his summer vacation. He lived in the Washington DC for one year (2001-02) while his father was working there. His cousion is 18.

After making it to the top, which is not exactly the top, we visited a temple. I received compliments for my Beastie Boys T from a guy residing from S. Carolina (now lives in Okinawa, Japan. Speaks Japanese and Chinese. I’m jealous.) After the temple, the groups gathered under some shelter. Just as I passed underneath, one of the shingles from the roof fell off. I got lucky. Cheng Jie’s uncle said he had prayed for me earlier at the temple.

After seeing a crowd of people, I walked over to find them feeding monkey’s. A little boy was giving food to the monkey and was all smiles. That is, until the monkey attacked him. He had his back turned and the monkey jumped him from behind, biting his back and sratching him. The Mother of the boy was angry, first at the boy, and then the monkey, who she tried to fight. But the monkey had back up (think the Bushwackers from WWF - tag team action). She swung her purse, the monkey dodged her and gave a ooh oooh oooooooooooooh. LOL. It was all comical to me.

Then, in the true spirit of commercialization, someone gave the monkey a bottle of Coke. He loved it.  Wait until you see the photos.

We ate lunch and drank some read alcohol. Visited another temple and then headed to the monkey park. Some of the monkeys snatch things from people’s bags and others just got down in front of everyone. It was all good, clean entertainment to me.

We walked down the mountain and went for dinner. Yes, they did put that unused rice back in the cooker for future patrons. By the time our bus arrived (1.5 hours after dinner), the window was fixed, so I only got a snap of the new window taped in.

We got back to ChengDu around 2200PM and were received by Qi Yu and Chun Hao. Summer and CH took us for a foot massage and bahuoguan, or cupping, a traditional Chinese therapeutic treatment. The “guan” is a small round vessel with one end open. First some cotton is burned inside the vessel so as to reduce the air inside and achieve less air pressure inside the vessel than out. Then the vessel can stick to small areas of skin. Since the inside of the vessel is greatly lacking in air, the vessel will be pressed by the air outside and suck up the skin in this air tightly, stimulating the points underneath. This generates the qi, which is essential for health. The skin accumulates more blood, and the white cells are strengthened in this area and even over the whole body. Since cupping is simple and creates rare after- or side effects, it is widely used on the waist, belly, hips, shoulders and neck. Check out the pics of my back.

Anyway, the foot massage turned into a full body massage and the woman was coming quite close to my friend. And, to be honest, after not being touched (editors note: being bumped on the crowded streets of China does not count as “touched”) for quite sometime, I was feeling slightly tempted to leap into action. Kidding, maybe. You be the judge. Lucky for me there was a nature show on TV to keep me pre-occupied. That, and I kept telling myself - ‘this is something to blog about, this is something to blog about, this is something to…too late…’

We got dropped off and decided to go out. It was about 0230AM. We tried to leave but our lock broke, so our door wouldn’t shut. We decided to leave it as is and worry about it later. Just on our corner is a vendor who has a big tricycle with a flat bed and grill. You choose the skewered meat and he fires it up. Beers are 3RMB (that’s less than 50 cents). You sit on a stool and a table 2.5 feet from the ground). I drank most of the beer and ate most of the food and even did most of the talking.

Our total was 21RMB and I gave them 25RMB and just said keep the change. The owners, a husband, wife, and their little girl refused and said coming back another time would be enough for them. Ryoko pointed out that maybe they think I am a foreigner with a lot of money and that I feel sorry for them. The truth is, I was trying to show my gratitude in the form of a gratuity. I know how hard I worked for that 4 extra RMB and I thought that their product, service, and labor was a fair exchange.

We headed back around 0430AM and before heading inside talked about my actions from the other night. Specifically, me buying the bucket of flowers from the little girl. Ryoko said she never buys such things from those little kids because they are actually working for someone else and don’t get the money that they bring in. Also, she seems not to like the idea of children working so late at night. She said that I did not improve the condition of anyone, but instead, made the other kids who I did not buy from, “miserable”.

Well, of course, I couldn’t disagree anymore. And, as I explained, I’m not sure who the girl is working for. But I know she is working. And I’m not against that. This is not the US or Japan. I understand that this may be a necessary condition for the girl’s survival. And even if it’s not, I still put her in a situation that would require her to make a decision, to sharpen her skills. That is, I paid a lot more for the flowers than they were worth. So even if she is reporting back to someone, she has the opportunity to lie and pocket the difference between the cost to her supplier and the revenue from me. She can use this to money for whatever she chooses, and more importantly, this situation as an opportunity to learn about business.