What to do
- Emei is the accessible one from a standard itinerary — it pairs naturally with Leshan's giant Buddha, which is the largest pre-modern stone Buddha in the world.
WhereChengdu
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Landscape · Established as pilgrimage sites from the Tang dynasty onward
The Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains四大佛教名山
A separate canon from the five, and a religious rather than an imperial one. Each is the earthly seat of a bodhisattva: Wutai in Shanxi belongs to Manjusri and holds some of the oldest surviving timber buildings in China; Emei in Sichuan belongs to Samantabhadra and ends at a golden summit that floats above cloud, with monkeys along the path that will take your lunch; Jiuhua in Anhui belongs to Ksitigarbha and keeps mummified monks on display; Putuo is an island off Zhejiang and belongs to Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion, which is why it is the one Chinese grandmothers go to.