I wake up to see the lady infront of me wolfing down a back of cherries and a bag of nuts. She alternates between the two bags, spitting out seeds and shells into a silver tray that every now and then she disappears to empty. My cabin is close to the toilets and basins so I hear people spit into the basins in their morning routine. The plastic bin with no lid is full of used tissues and the bathroom reeks of cigarette smoke. China trains, you were doing so well. I watch the ladies morning routine. Two face creams, neck cream, eye cream, hand cream, full face of make up. I take out my baby wipes. Done. The man from the bunk above me moves down to sit on my bed when I've folded up my bedding and they all talking about him. The solo man turns to me and says ‘do you speak Chinese?’ In a strong Chinese accent. I laugh and say no. I definitely do not speak it. My attempts at ‘thank you’ get a frown, but if I say thank you they understand immediately. The lady makes some hand gestures and I decipher she wants to know where I'm getting off. I say Emei Shan. They all frown. I get out my ticket ‘oo Emei Shan’. That's definitely what I had said! It's the next stop. The train arrives at Emei Shan and they all help me get off with big smiles. 

Do you know how hard it is to imitate ‘cash machine’? That was my first task in Emei town. Eventually I found an ATM but it didn't take foreign cards so I walk up the road under directions from a teller at the first bank to the Bank of China. This walk was probably only 2km but with my pack it felt so much longer. I see men playing cards, throwing their cards onto the table, men playing with dice, with dominos, all sat on small stools around tables. 

The town is beautiful. There's fresh air, green manicured grass, central reservations on the roads are perfectly maintained. Lamp posts are a deep red with gold lanterns. I realise, now that I have cash, I need to walk back to the bus stop near the train station to get the base of the mountain. Sod that. As if by magic I reach a street corner and a taxi man pulls over ‘taxi?’ YES!!! The exchange explaining where I wanted to go wasn't quite as easy, but luckily my rough guide travel book has everything written in Chinese symbols- this was book was definitely going to come in handy. He gets out of the taxi to help me with my bags. He walks towards me and suddenly stops, looks me up and down, he's about 5ft 4, and holds his hand a foot about his head and points at me and thumbs up with a big grin. I think I just got complimented for being tall?

We stop outside the Teddy Bear Hostel. I check in to an 8-bed-dorm and it looks like I have a whole dorm to myself. A quick nap, shower, lunch and I head off to the transport centre to get up the mountain. You can spend a long time hiking up the mountain, apparently there's a three day route, and there are temples along the way that you can stay in overnight, but my time was very limited so I took the lazy fat person option; bus to the top please! The transport centre was practically next door to the hostel and there were English translations, but again my guide book explained all my options for me. The bus to the top was 90¥ and would take an hour and half. As soon as the bus left the station half the locals closed the curtains and went to sleep. I’m sorry but we're driving up a beautiful mountain with incredible scenic views. The bus stopped half way where we had to get off and pay to actually enter the mountain grounds (160¥). Passengers had to walk through a kiosk, the bus through a gateway, and then got we back on. The bus driver was lovely to me, he could see the sheer confusion on my face when the bus stopped and he stood in the bus doorway calling me to get back on. As the bus started again, they all went back to sleep. It would seem they all like a nap! We reached the drop off point at Leidongpong and there were two options; 10km hike or cable car. I'm not proud to say, I took the cable car. But can I just say, there were a load of steps to the cable car! I dodged spit piles and selfie sticks, but I did notice that most of people that hawked and spit were older, perhaps China will be spit free in a few generations time?

At the top of the mountain is the Golden Summit. The view was spectacular. It's bitterly cold because you're above the clouds (thanks for making me take the coat, Mum). There's an enormous golden statue of Puxian with multiple faces riding elephants. The monument is at the top of a staircase lined by golden elephant statues, at the bottom of the stairs incense holders. When you reach the top there are more temples. The view of the mountains and the towns in the low distance dispersed through the clouds is amazing. The only problem I have the summit is there are no explanations of the history in English so I really have no idea what I'm looking at. There's a information board at the base of the but it's fluffy ‘watch the rain fall like drops of pearls sent from heaven blah blah blah’. No, can you just tell me why this statue is here? Who made it? Since when? 

After walking around the summit and sitting watching people take so many selfies, and pray- walking around the statue three times, kneeling and bowing on the cushion in front, I started to get a pounding headache so decided to head back down. 

In the waiting room for the cable car I watched a period drama showing on the TV. I'm guessing the themes were love, war and honour? Everyone in the waiting room was taking selfies, looking at the selfies they had taken or watching the TV. 

Cable car, minibus (again they all slept), walk back to the hostel my head ache got worse. I do end up having a dorm to myself. I drink a litre of water, take a bunch of painkillers and sleep.