When you are in Chengdu and you want to hike Mt. Emei, then you are much more flexible by doing the trip on your own instead of going on a guided tour. Besides you can safe a lot of money.
A cheap way to get from Chengdu to Emei Shan is to take the bus. The bus departs from the Xin Nan Men bus station. Starting in the early morning there is a bus every 20 min or so going to Emei Shan. The bus ride takes around three hours and the ticket costs around 45 Yuan. You have to get off at the Emei bus station (end of the line). From there you have to take a taxi to the entrance of Mt. Emei.
In my case the bus driver directed me to a shared taxi with a bunch of other Chinese who also headed to Mt. Emei and I only had to pay 5 Yuan.
The bus which goes back to Chengdu leaves directly at the main entrance of Mt. Emei, so you don’t have to go back to the Emei bus station. The ticket price should be around 50 Yuan. Be aware that the last bus leaves at around 5:15 pm.
After 3 hours driving back the bus drops you off somewhere in Chengdu. The drop point is not a bus station however. It’s some main road, but I have no clue where. The best thing is to take a taxi for the rest of the way. Fortunately taxis are really cheap in Chengdu.
The entrance fee to Mt. Emei is 120 Yuan (students 80 Yuan). A night at a dorm room at one of the buddhist temples on Mt. Emei costs 50 Yuan.
So altogether a 2 day trip to Mt. Emei costs 270 Yuan (student 230 Yuan), which is much cheaper than the 800 Yuan they asked for at the youth hostel.
To see more pictures from my trip to Mt. Emei click here.
Hi guys, thank you for the above. Could you please advise how you got to the summit? Walk or cable car? Or both? Also which buddhist temple did you sleep at?
Thank you so much.
Kind regards.