But when we passed the sacred mountain, Emei Shan, Hefei Travel I was glad I hadn’t stopped. The idea of climbing a mountain with a flight of Hefei Travel steps up it, along with hordes of other tourists, in the rain, didn’t appeal to me, while the logs floating down to the Dadu river sawmills convinced me I wouldn’t have wanted to risk my canoe among them either.
Occasionally I spotted soldiers with rifles on bhdge parapets and strategic view points, guarding the hills against the chance of people straying that way. It’s an area said to hold top-secret missile-testing bases. On a mountainous stretch my attention was caught by some billowing white smoke which seemed to be escaping from the ground, coming in lines from fissures and cracks in the rock.
It couldn’t be hot springs because the smoke was coming from the sides and tops of the hills.
