Thanks! Looks like there's probably lots of snow right now. Once you get going from either Baoguo temple or Qingyin Pavilion (wherever you choose to start) you can't get lost - just keep walking up 😆 The temples before you get to the ski area should absolutely have beds available, but once you reach the ski area, I imagine everything will be fully booked (you can book a hotel, but it's pretty expensive)... But if all else fails, just go to the noodle shop I went to 😅 They had LOTS of beds. Hope you have a great trip/hike!

Thanks so much! Hahaha I would consider those monkeys everything BUT friendly :D But thankfully I listened to the advice you hear everywhere which is to not have any plastic bags or bags with food easily seen/available

Yes, you can also take the cable car back down if you'd like. I don't remember how long the walk down took, but it wasn't that long to get to the bus stop. Probably between 1-2 hours

Before you decide, check to see if it snowed there recently - if there's no snow (which I imagine is probably rare, but maybe not these days), then it might still be worth it. If it had snowed recently, I recommend skipping

哈哈 其实我之前也没听到哈巴。视频的女人找到了然后计划了这次旅行。我觉得哈巴越来越更有名的，但是你是对了。大部分的外国人还不知道这个地方。 在中国这次旅行是我最喜欢的。哈巴还是wild。是我第一次在中国爬山没有楼梯。哎呀中国太老了哈哈哈大部分的山有楼梯。 我还想回去中国的四川，青海，甘肃，在爬山

@@travelandtrees I am also planning a trip to western Sichuan, including self driving, hiking, and camping

Very cool!! Will definitely be a great trip!

Thank you! I appreciate that 😊

For both the hut at the lake and the base camp we called ahead from our accommodation (our host called ahead and booked for us). The hut was extremely important to call ahead for, but base camp I think we would have had no problem getting beds just showing up, but calling ahead is still recommended. But during the busy season, it books up.

@@travelandtrees Thank you

谢谢！你有机会的话应该来吧！

Yes, absolutely we are allowed to enter. You'll need to show your passport at the ticket booth, but no problems getting in

I'm from Sichuan. Believe me, foreigners can visit all the scenic spots in China. As long as you don't take the filter of BBC and CNN, we are very welcome. Of course, if you want to visit the military restricted area, you can't, because we civilians can't go in, hahaha

Hi, I think it definitely depends on the weather. If it has had snow recently then I think it's best to just skip Huanglong completely - as you can tell from the video, there isn't too much to see, and it's a bit out of the way to get there. There's actually surprisingly more stuff to do around Jiuzhaigou (mostly a car is needed, but there might be other options available I'm not sure) that I wasn't aware of before I went. If you have the extra time, and you feel like you saw everything at Jiuzhaigou without being rushed then by all means go to Huanglong, but if you don't want to rush at Jiuzhaigou and/or don't have too much time, you can easily skip Huanglong and not feel like you're missing out on anything

@@travelandtrees Thanks a lot for replying. Getting to jiuzhaigou is difficult as well. I just thought of spending one day there and that's when I came to know about this place, so I was confused whether I should stay there for 2 days and visit this place as well. But I guess jiuzhaigou is enough especially considering the weather.

​@@vasilisawise290I agree. Unless you have a car and a lot of free time, Huanglong really isn't worth it in the winter (I think)

@@travelandtrees so do you think one day is enough for jiazhaigou?

​@@vasilisawise290 If you start when the gates open and don't spend too much time at any place, you can definitely see everything in 1 day, although it will probably be pretty exhausting. I have a video on my channel of Jiuzhaigou, and all of that was in one day. Taking 2 days to relaxingly see all the spots on both sides would be more chill, but it also depends on you. The place, although unbelievably beautiful, feels a bit like Disneyland only in that you have to get on a bus, ride to a stop, get off the bus, go look at the spot, take pictures, get back on the bus, and repeat, repeat, repeat. On the right side you can walk along most of the spots without getting constantly on/off the bus, but I think the quicker you go, the less of its appeal it has because rather than enjoying each spot and the moment you're kind of just going from spot to spot to take the picture and 'check off' the spot. So I would base it off of how you prefer to travel. If you are a fast walker/traveler in general, then 1 day is doable and you will see everything. If you like to really take your time and go slow, you will need 2 days (but not more I think)

This was in February 2022. It all depends on the weather and whether there's a lot of snowfall or not. But the number of tourists in the winter season is significantly less for sure

Im coming in end of Dec / early Jan as well. Hope all is well! :)

Thanks :)

Getting hotels in China as a foreigner is always a bit tricky because not every hotel will accept foreigners as they don't have the right paperwork or just don't want to deal with the trouble of registering a foreigner. (In China, you HAVE to register your address at the local police station if you are staying in a new location for more than 24 hours, even if you are staying with a friend. So many hotels don't want to deal with extra hassle.) So for hotels, use CTrip (it's a website and app). There, you can book your hotel. They are usually good about indicating whether they will accept foreigners or not, and in any case, they might immediately call you after booking to tell you they don't take foreigners. It's a little frustrating, but you'll get used to it, and you'll definitely find something. For other stuff, basically just download the Alibaba or WeChat apps and from either of those you can book trains and planes anywhere in the country. So just always make sure you book a hotel first and maybe call or email them ahead of time to confirm they will accept a foreigner, then book your train / plane through WeChat. Once you land, book a DiDi (China's version of Uber), and then you're all set to explore! China's not the easiest place to travel, but once you get used to using CTrip, WeChat for booking flights/trains, and Didi, then you can basically get around even with zero Chinese language skills.

For China in general, or specifically Emei? Actually, I suppose the same for both is - none. Language, even a little bit is always going to help, but you can definitely get by in China and particularly hiking Mt Emei with no Mandarin. For the sake of brevity, I'll just walk through Mt. Emei 1) Take a train from wherever you are to Emeishan City (Nearest large city is Chengdu) - and from there you'll probably want to travel to Baoguocun to be closer and in the immediate vicinity of the mountain hiking area 2) Grab a Didi (China's version of Uber) to your accommodation (so no language needed there, only the address input) - (Always book your accommodation in China ahead of time as not all places in China accept foreigners - you can use CTrip to book accommodation. 3) If you're staying in a hotel, they might not/probably won't speak English, but if you're in a hostel (or a more western-accommodating hotel) they most likely will speak English and can answer your questions, such as where to start or what bus to grab if you want to take a bus 4) Once you get started on the mountain, either from the bottom at Baoguo Temple or if you take a bus up to Qingyin Temple or Shengshui Temple, then probably no one on the mountain outside of other tourists will speak English, but there are yellow signposts (as seen in the video) always around, and the route up is very obvious (It's only not obvious when you begin hiking from your accommodation in Baoguocun to Baoguo Temple and then up from there because you'll need to walk along the road for a little bit until you reach the first signposts and it can feel like you aren't going the right way, but it's only for a short distance). And, if at any point you feel you aren't going in the right way, find someone, point in a direction and say, "Emei Shan?" and they'll certainly point you the right way . 5) Accommodation on the mountain will be a bit tricky. You can either book a hotel at the top ahead of time (near the ski resort), or just spend the night in any of the temples along the way up. I don't think you'll need to speak English for this - it's extremely common for hikers to spend the night in the temples, so maybe just mime that you want to sleep and they'll charge you the 50 or so kuai and point you to your room.... If you were as unfortunate as me and end up at the last temple on the top and they're all full... well, at least you now know that there's a little restaurant that also has beds. The owner actually motioned to me as she saw I was leaving the temple - I wouldn't have even thought to ask if they had beds. 6) From the top, you'll be in a SUPER touristy area, so booking a ski lift down and a bus ticket down will be pretty obvious based on the lines and the names on the wall above each line. Unfortunately, I can't remember if they also had information in English, but you wouldn't have any trouble booking a ski lift or bus - it should be quite intuitive (as intuitive as any bus station is - but even those in our own countries can sometimes be confusing) Hope this helped!!

Thanks Nazli!!!

Every summer?! That sounds amazing!

Hi Hector, no, unfortunately I didn't log mine in AllTrail. But this one seems to be the same route: www.alltrails.com/trail/china/sichuan/baoguo-temple-mount-emei

Thanks so much Riya! Hiking is my absolute favorite thing to do in the world!! I hope you can conquer all the mountains on your list!!

Thanks Dominique!

Hi, thanks for the comment - yes I went January 2022 :)

Thanks!

But it's always worth the challenge in the end! :)

Thanks Jim! And I agree, the trains are great!