| Mount Emei | |
|---|---|
| Emei Shan | |
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 3,099 m (10,167 ft)[1] |
| Prominence | 1,069 m (3,507 ft) |
| Listing | Mountains of China |
| Coordinates | 29°31′11″N103°19′57″E / 29.51972°N 103.33250°E /29.51972; 103.33250 |
| Geography | |
  Mount Emei  Mount Emei | |
| Country | China |
| Province | Sichuan |
| Municipality | Emeishan City |
| Official name | Mount Emei Scenic Area, includingLeshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area |
| Type | Mixed |
| Criteria | iv, vi, x |
| Designated | 1996(20thsession) |
| Reference no. | 779 |
| Region | Asia-Pacific |
| Mount Emei | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) "Mount Emei" in Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 峨眉山[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Part of a series on |
| Chinese martial arts (Wushu) |
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Historical locations |
Mount Emei ([ɤ̌.měɪ];Chinese:峨眉山[2];pinyin:Éméi shān),alternativelyMount Omei, is a 3,099-metre-tall (10,167 ft)mountain inSichuan Province, China, and is the highest of theFour Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China.[3] Mount Emei sits at the western rim of theSichuan Basin. The mountains west of it are known asDaxiangling.[4]A large surrounding area of countryside is geologically known as thePermian Emeishan Large Igneous Province, alarge igneous province generated by theEmeishan Traps volcanic eruptions during thePermian Period.
Administratively, Mount Emei is located near thecounty-level city of the same name (Emeishan City), which is in turn part of theprefecture-level city ofLeshan. It was made aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 1996.[5]
Emei in Chinese means "moth-browed".[6]
Chinese people offer burning sandalwood near the mountain to send their "prayers to heaven".[7]
Mount Emei is one of theFour Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, and is traditionally regarded as thebodhimaṇḍa, or place of enlightenment, of theBodhisattvaPuxian (普賢菩薩; Samantabhadra).
Sources of the 16th and 17th centuries allude to the practice ofmartial arts in the monasteries of Mount Emei,[8] which made the earliest extant reference to the Shaolin Monastery as the place of origin of Chinese martial arts.[9]
Chinese Buddhistpilgrims regularly travel to the mountain.[7]
This is the location of the firstBuddhist temple built in China in the 1st century CE.[5]The site has seventy-six Buddhist monasteries of theMing andQing dynasties, most of them located near the mountain top. The monasteries demonstrate a flexible architectural style that adapts to the landscape. Some, such as the halls of Baoguosi, are built on terraces of varying levels, while others, including the structures of Leiyinsi, are on raised stilts. Here the fixed plans of Buddhist monasteries of earlier periods were modified or ignored in order to make full use of the natural scenery. The buildings of Qingyinge are laid out in an irregular plot on the narrow piece of land between the Black Dragon River and theWhite Dragon River. The site is large and the winding footpath is 50 km (31 mi) long, taking several days to walk.[10]
Cable cars ease the ascent to the two temples atJinding (3,077 m), an hour's hike from the mountain's peak.[3][11]
The summit of Mount Emei has an alpinesubarctic climate (KöppenDwc), with long, cold (but not severely so) winters, and short, cool summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −5.7 °C (21.7 °F) in January to 11.6 °C (52.9 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 3.07 °C (37.5 °F). Precipitation is common year-round (occurring on more than 250 days), but due to the influence of themonsoon, rainfall is especially heavy in summer, and more than 70% of the annual total occurs from June to September.
| Climate data for Mount Emei, elevation 3,070 m (10,070 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 17.7 (63.9) | 18.6 (65.5) | 23.9 (75.0) | 22.7 (72.9) | 24.2 (75.6) | 22.5 (72.5) | 22.1 (71.8) | 21.5 (70.7) | 22.2 (72.0) | 19.3 (66.7) | 19.5 (67.1) | 18.8 (65.8) | 22.7 (72.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −0.2 (31.6) | 1.8 (35.2) | 4.6 (40.3) | 8.4 (47.1) | 11.1 (52.0) | 13.5 (56.3) | 15.7 (60.3) | 15.1 (59.2) | 12.2 (54.0) | 7.5 (45.5) | 5.0 (41.0) | 1.1 (34.0) | 8.0 (46.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −5.5 (22.1) | −3.6 (25.5) | −0.6 (30.9) | 3.7 (38.7) | 6.9 (44.4) | 9.9 (49.8) | 12.1 (53.8) | 11.5 (52.7) | 8.6 (47.5) | 4.0 (39.2) | 0.5 (32.9) | −3.7 (25.3) | 3.7 (38.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −8.8 (16.2) | −6.9 (19.6) | −3.7 (25.3) | 0.7 (33.3) | 4.1 (39.4) | 7.4 (45.3) | 9.8 (49.6) | 9.3 (48.7) | 6.4 (43.5) | 1.9 (35.4) | −2.3 (27.9) | −6.8 (19.8) | 0.9 (33.7) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −19.2 (−2.6) | −19.1 (−2.4) | −17.2 (1.0) | −10.6 (12.9) | −7.4 (18.7) | −0.2 (31.6) | 2.1 (35.8) | 2.8 (37.0) | −3.5 (25.7) | −11.1 (12.0) | −14.7 (5.5) | −19.7 (−3.5) | −19.7 (−3.5) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 13.3 (0.52) | 21.5 (0.85) | 57.7 (2.27) | 118.4 (4.66) | 169.2 (6.66) | 214.8 (8.46) | 348.2 (13.71) | 385.2 (15.17) | 192.7 (7.59) | 90.7 (3.57) | 35.5 (1.40) | 14.0 (0.55) | 1,661.2 (65.41) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 14.9 | 15.9 | 20.7 | 21.1 | 21.7 | 23.2 | 22.2 | 21.9 | 22.6 | 24.6 | 16.9 | 13.9 | 239.6 |
| Average snowy days | 15.3 | 13.1 | 14.0 | 7.6 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 4.4 | 8.2 | 10.8 | 76 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 79 | 80 | 85 | 86 | 85 | 87 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 93 | 86 | 80 | 86 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 147.2 | 138.2 | 142.8 | 132.5 | 113.2 | 91.1 | 110.9 | 113.4 | 89.0 | 77.4 | 131.0 | 143.3 | 1,430 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 45 | 44 | 38 | 34 | 27 | 22 | 26 | 28 | 24 | 22 | 41 | 45 | 33 |
| Source 1:China Meteorological Administration[12][13] all-time extreme temperature[14] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Weather China[15] | |||||||||||||
There are nearly 400 total species of animals, invertebrates and plants native to the mountain. There are at least six snake species native to the region, including theChinese slug snake,Mandarin ratsnake,mountain water snake,Peters' odd-scaled snake, plus some potentlyvenomous species, such as theChinese green tree viper, thebrown spotted pitviper and theTaiwan mountain pitviper.
Visitors to Mount Emei will likely see dozens ofTibetan macaques, which can often be viewed taking food from tourists. A famously well-fed, one-armed, elderly female macaque namedXing Xing has millions of views onYouTube, seemingly showing the macaques’ complete disdain for the hordes of tourists who are often offering them food directly in their faces. It seems that only one elderly woman who lives on the mountain, and her son, are able to be close to Xing Xing, to feed and pet her. Xing Xing appears to consider the woman her best friend, while shunning the offers of food from strangers. If tourists persist in holding food in the monkeys’ faces, they will aggressively grab at the person’s clothing and stare at them, and not let go. If the person continues to irritate the macaque, they are very easily angered and prone to bite. Still, local merchants sell nuts and other foods for the tourists to attempt to feed the monkeys.
Other local animals include lizards, such as theIndian forest skink and the lacertaTakydromus intermedius, the frogsRana adenopleura andVibrissaphora liui, and a giant, half-metre longearthworm species,Pheretima praepinguis.
Mount Emei is known for its high level ofendemism, and approximately 200 plant species have been described as endemic to the area. One example isAbies fabri, a rare species of fir tree.[citation needed]
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