--- title: "Mount Emei Monastery Stay: Baoguo Temple & Golden Summit | LyrikTrip" description: "Two days on Emei: the monastery closes to the public at five and you stay inside it — vegetarian dinner, an evening with a senior monk, chanting at six, a kungfu class at seven, and the Golden Summit after breakfast." type: "experience" source: "film" url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit" canonical_url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit" locale: "en-GB" alternates: {"en-US":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","en-GB":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","zh-CN":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-CN/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","zh-TW":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-TW/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","de-DE":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/de-DE/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","fr-FR":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/fr-FR/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","es-ES":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/es-ES/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","it-IT":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/it-IT/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit","x-default":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/experience/emei-monastery-night-and-summit"} --- ![The altar hall of Baoguo Monastery with its lamps lit](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aaa5ce06469c.webp) Mt Emei · One overnight, booked on its own # Everyone leaves at five. *You don't.* A monastery on Mt Emei shuts its gates to the public at 5 pm. You stay inside — vegetarian dinner, an evening with a senior monk, chanting at six, and a kungfu class at seven, before the Golden Summit. - Where: Mt Emei · Baoguo Monastery · Southern Sichuan · 2.5 hours from Chengdu - How long: 2 days, 1 night · Hotel pickup 7:30–8:30 am - You sleep: Inside the monastery · Simple and clean — that is the honest description 报国寺 金顶 LyrikTrip · a standalone overnight experience ## Chant*& Climb* - 2 days, 1 night - A night inside the monastery - Kungfu at seven - The summit next morning ## What you get ### What staying past five *actually gets you* ### You'll see - A working monastery **with the public gone** — the courtyards empty from six - Monks at morning chanting, 6 to 7 am, from inside the hall rather than a doorway - **Wild macaques** on the trail, close and unbothered - The Golden Summit at over 3,000 metres — cloud sea if the weather gives it to you ### You'll eat - **Vegetarian dinner cooked inside the monastery**, at the monks' own table - Breakfast the next morning, same room - Lunch in the villagers' restaurants at the foot of the walk — **bamboo shoot, local sausage, cured pork** ### You'll hear - **A senior monk**, introduced by your guide, on his own practice — for as long as the conversation runs - Chanting at six, which is the thing guests write to us about afterwards - A kungfu master correcting you, out loud, at seven in the morning ### You'll take home - A kungfu form you were actually taught, not shown - A night's sleep inside a Buddhist monastery — **simple and clean, and we mean both words** - The specific quiet of a mountain temple after the last bus has gone ## Act I — Why stay ![Guests inside a painted temple hall](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8cace2aaf6b9.webp) ![The summit ridge of Mt Emei above a sea of cloud at first light](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7deeb0405bab.webp) ![Stone steps climbing through wet forest on Mt Emei](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/590d24a2b986.webp) Emei is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains, and it is large. *Between nine and five it is also very busy.* The hours that are not busy are the ones the day-trippers are not there for: dusk, and the hour after six in the morning. So the design of these two days is simple. *You stay for those hours.* ## 01 — Walk down, not up ![A tray of Chinese temple vegetarian dishes](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e6344f16bec0.webp) 万年寺 Day 1 · 10:30 Day one, on foot ### Two hours downhill Green bus to Wannian · cable car optional · then walk The green bus takes you to the Wannian Temple parking area — the Temple of Ten Thousand Years — and you go up by foot or cable car, your choice. From there it is roughly two hours walking *down* to Baoguo, past temples, a river, pavilions and a lake. Downhill is deliberate: it is the direction on this mountain that leaves you able to enjoy the evening. ## 02 — Lunch in the village ![A macaque sitting on a branch on Mt Emei](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b329f598bf8e.webp) 山下 Day 1 · 12:30 Not on the itinerary sheet ### Bamboo shoot, sausage, bacon Villagers' restaurants · lunch is excluded, on purpose You eat in the villagers' restaurants at the foot of the walk — local bamboo shoot, local sausage, local cured pork. Lunch is excluded from the price so you order what you want rather than what a group menu decided. Also: the monkeys are real, they are bold, and they will take an unattended bag. ## 03 — After the gates ![A kungfu master teaching a guest one to one beside the monastery bell](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6b1fa261eca5.webp) 闭园 Day 1 · 18:00 The next twelve hours ### Vegetarian dinner, and no crowd 6:00 pm · inside the monastery At six your twelve hours begin. Dinner is vegetarian and eaten inside. What is unusual is not the food — it is that the building has emptied. The monastery has been closed to the public for an hour, and the courtyards you walked through in the afternoon now have nobody in them. ## 04 — The senior monk ![An illustrated map of Mt Emei showing the route up to the Golden Summit](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/68012b8bfc04.webp) 夜话 Day 1 · 19:10 7:10 pm ### One monk, as long as it runs Introduced by your guide · then the evening is yours Your guide introduces one of the senior monks, who talks about his own practice and answers what you ask. It is not a lecture and there is no set length. Afterwards you have the temple and the grounds to yourself until morning, which is the part people describe afterwards rather than the talk itself. ## 05 — Chanting ![A red monastery wall on Mt Emei, half lost in mist](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fa085100cb56.webp) 早课 Day 2 · 06:00 Six in the morning ### You can get up for it, or not Chanting 6:00–7:00 · the room is simple and clean The monks begin chanting around six and go on for about an hour. Getting up for it is optional and strongly recommended — it is the reason to be inside the building rather than in a hotel down the road. On the accommodation: it is simple and clean, and we would rather say that plainly than dress it up. ## 06 — Kungfu at seven ![The golden hall at the summit of Mt Emei](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e8dac17751fa.webp) 功夫 Day 2 · 07:00 Outside the temple ### A class, with a real master Emei has its own school · and he will correct you Emei is one of China's named martial arts traditions, alongside Shaolin and Wudang. The class happens outside the temple, first thing, with a master who teaches properly — meaning you will be corrected, repeatedly, in front of the others. Nobody minds. Everyone is equally bad at seven in the morning. ## 07 — The Golden Summit ![Baoguo Monastery from above, its halls stepping up the hillside](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/445293615ed8.webp) 金顶 Day 2 · 11:00 The top of the mountain ### Bus, walk, cable car, arrive 1.5 h bus to Leidongping · 30 min hike · then the cable car An hour and a half of bus to the Leidongping parking area at 2,430 metres, half an hour on foot, then the cable car to the summit. Monkeys again on the way, and bolder up here. What you get at the top depends entirely on the weather, and we will not pretend otherwise — on a clear day it is the sea of cloud everyone comes for. ## Why the order matters ![A kungfu master demonstrating while guests watch from the pavilion](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/351cf399726a.webp) Most itineraries run this the other way round ### The summit is the postcard. *The night is the reason.* Almost every Emei itinerary puts the summit first and treats the monasteries as things you pass on the way up. That produces one very long day and a photograph. This one inverts it. Day one is a downhill walk and an evening that only exists because the gates shut at five. Day two you are already on the mountain and rested, so the summit is a morning rather than an ordeal. The two things guests write to us about afterwards are the chanting and the kungfu class. Both happen before eight in the morning, and neither is possible if you slept in a hotel in town. ## Practicalities - Duration: 2 days, 1 night - Pickup: Your hotel, 7:30–8:30 am - Drive: 2.5 hours each way - Included: Transfers · Emei entrance · green bus, both sections · one night in Baoguo Monastery · vegetarian dinner · breakfast · kungfu class · English-speaking guide - Not included: Lunch · gratuities - Accommodation: Inside the monastery — simple and clean - Altitude: Leidongping 2,430 m · the summit is higher again - Weather: The summit view is not guaranteed ## End card ![A cable car crossing the forested mountain](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0ece35116716.webp) ### Book *the night* A standalone overnight, hotel to hotel. Tell us a date and we'll confirm the monastery can host. [**Start planning](/contact)