Baoguo Village and Teddy Bear Hotel

Baoguo Village is basically the base camp for Mount Emei. This is the location where the bus station to Emei Shan is situated. It is also the home of Teddy Bear Hotel but where is Baoguo Village?

In my original plan, I would travel from Xinnanmen Bus Station in Chengdu to Leshan City in the morning to visit Leshan Giant Buddha. After the visit, I would travel to Baoguo Village in the afternoon and stay overnight in Teddy Bear Hotel. Early the next morning, I would go to Mount Emei and stay another night at Teddy Bear if I like Mount Emei. However, I was not sure how I could get to Baoguo Village from Leshan City. Which bus station in Leshan City should I go to? Were there regular buses and where do I get off to find Teddy Bear Hotel? How do I get to Mount Emei from Teddy Bear Hotel? This was information which I could not find on the web.

Fortunately, I found some information at Traffic Inn. At the lobby/ reading corner, I found flyers from Teddy Bear Hotel, with instructions to guests on how to get to Teddy Bear Hotel from Leshan City and Emei Shan City. You can find the same information on Teddy Bear Hotel website at http://www.teddybear.com.cn/faq_en.htm. I did not know about this website until I saw the flyers.

As a summary, visitors going to Teddy Bear Hotel should go to Baoguo Village. From Emei Shan City Bus Station, take a taxi to Baoguo Village. You can also take an unlicensed shared van (mian bao che) for RMB5 per passenger but it is at your own risks. I am not sure whether there are buses going into Baoguo Village but the bus from Baoguo Village Bus Station to Leshan Xiaoba Bus Station that I took stopped at Emei Shan City bus station for a minute or two to pick up passengers. It is possible the same is true for buses coming in the opposite direction.

For those coming from Leshan City, they should take the bus from Leshan Xiaoba Bus Station to Baoguo Village. I understand there were two other bus stations so make sure you are the right bus station.

Baoguo Village has just one main street, stretching from the village square to the entrance archway. After your taxi or bus enters the entrance archway, you would see a row of shop houses on the left. Teddy Bear Hotel lies one block before Baoguo Bus Station but because it does not face the main street, you are likely to miss it. It is at a side street.

Wherever you are dropped off in Baoguo Village, you would not get lost. From end to end, it is only about five minutes' walk. Just stay on the main street and watch out for the Bus Station. Teddy Bear Hotel is just one block away, between the bus station and the entrance archway.

The direction map from Teddy Bear Hotel. Click to enlarge

The relative positions of Emei Shan City and Baoguo Village. Click to enlarge the map

Click to enlarge

The following is a sequence of photos, starting from Baoguo Village Square until the Baoguo Village entrance archway.

This is the main street in Baoguo Village.

I bought my steamed buns here

Behind the building is the bus parking area

You might miss Teddy Bear from the main road as it is on a side street

 

Teddy Bear Hotel

I must really applaud Andy and his team for providing such excellent service to its guests. True to its promise of assisting guests in finding the hotel, Bella who worked at the reception came on foot to my rescue when I called. The tout whose van I boarded had decided to take me to another hostel even though I told him I wanted to go to Teddy Bear Hotel.

Baoguo Village Meals

Day 12 (2 November 2012): It was really a miserable day for me. In addition to an upset stomach, I caught the wrong bus and went to Mei Shan instead of Emei Shan, had a aching butt because of the long hours sitting in the bus and was lost in Baoguo for a while when the van driver failed to drop me at Teddy Bear Hotel as requested.

Anyway, after checking in at Teddy Bear Hotel after a long day on the road, I ordered dinner and a mug of Chinese tea there. It was not a bad meal.

 

Day 13 (3 November 2012): I decided that I was not going to eat spicy food today to avoid aggravating my upset stomach. I went out at about 8:15 a.m. but most eateries were still closed. I finally saw a small eatery selling Wonton.

As I was still experiencing an upset stomach, I decided to skip lunch like yesterday. For dinner, I went for something which was not spicy. I had simple omelette with rice at Teddy Bear Hotel.

Onion omelette

Day 14 (4 November 2012): Instead of walking the back and side streets where I found the Wonton stall yesterday, I decided to walk along the main street to see whether I could find something else to eat. A short distant away from the hotel, I found several stalls selling noodles and steamed buns. I bought some takeaway steamed buns and ate them while walking back to the hotel.

The food stalls were found at the entrance to the side-street where the pharmacy was located

A Short Trip to Emei Shan

Day 13 (3rd November 2012) 

Click to enlarge

Since waking up this morning, I had been debating with myself whether I should be going to Emei Shan today or not. The motivation to go was really low. I came to Chengdu to see the World Heritage sites, including Emei Shan and Leshan Giant Buddha. If I did not go, I would regret it for life, being so near already but failing to make it. Going meant taking a risk of great consequence to my dignity.

I was still undecided as I went looking for breakfast. As expected, after breakfast, I was having problem with my stomach. I decided to wait for my stomach to "calm" down before making further decision on my plan.

At about 11:00 a.m. I decided to go to the bus station to get a ticket to Leidongping Bus Station and from there, to Jinding Peak/ Golden Summit. As I walked out, I noticed it was drizzling. Dark rain cloud was still hanging up there and the road was still wet. It was very cold. I decided to wait before going out. It would be foolhardy to get my jacket wet in the rain in this very cold weather.

At 1:00 p.m., the situation seemed to remain the same. It looked like there was not going to be rain. After checking with Bella, I was told that going to Leidongping Bus Station would take two hours up and two hours down. It was already 1:00 p.m. and that made going there impractical as the last bus down was 5:00 p.m. I checked with her where the best sight was and was told that the region around Wannian and Qingyin Pavillion was the best. This would require taking the bus up to Wannian Bus Station, taking the cable car further up to Wannian Temple then, taking a trek of two hours down from Wannian Temple to Qingyin Pavillion and another hour or so to Wuxian Gang Bus Station. I knew I was not fit enough for the mountain walk. So I decided to go to Wuxian Gang Bus Station instead, being the nearest to Baoguo Village.

There was nobody in the queue in the Wuxian Gang ticket counter. The ticketing officer at another counter asked where I was going and I said Wuxian Gang. She waved me over and sold me a ticket for RMB40. The bus was leaving and I followed the rest of the passengers to the bus.

In the bus, there was a guide giving her commentary on Emei Shan. I heard her saying something to the effect that the bus tickets should not be thrown away as they would be needed later on. I was not sure whether I understood her correctly. Less than 10 minutes later, it made a short stop at an unknown (to me) bus station to pick up some passengers before moving again.

When it finally reached the bus station, it was not Wuxian Gang Bus Station. It was Wannian Bus Station. On hindsight, could the bus station that we stopped to pick up some passengers be the Wuxian Gang Bus Station? Having reached there already, I have no choice but to buy the Emei Shan entrance ticket and the cable car ticket to Wannian Temple. I have read that the Emei Shan ticket was good for two days and I could as well use it for the Jinding Peak/ Golden Summit the next morning.

At the Wannian Temple, I have to pay another RMB10 to enter.

After exploring the temple complex, it was time to return. At the Wannian Bus Station, the driver asked me to get on board the bus as I approached. I asked him whether I needed to buy a ticket and another gentleman went into the ticketing office and promptly sold me a ticket for RMB20. However, I noticed other passengers coming after me were showing old tickets to the bus driver and getting on board the bus. I thought that strange and related that back to what the tourist guide was saying in the bus. At the hotel, I checked with Bella and she confirmed that the RMB40 ticket that I had bought was a return ticket and I had wasted RMB20 for another new ticket.

Arriving at Baoguo Village, we were dropped off at the Baoguo car park, not at the bus station. As it was only about 4:00 p.m., I decided to stroll around the area. I noticed people coming from an unknown direction. A few seemed to be going there. I decided to follow suit and found from the signage that the road leads to Baoguo Temple and Fuhu Temple.

I dropped by Baoguo Temple and paid RMB8 to enter. After a few snapshots, I walked over to the opposite side of Baoguo Temple to see the Shengji Bell before returning to the village.

I had wanted to continue to Fuhu Temple but had forgotten where I had seen the signage showing the direction to the temple. I did not bother to find out and strolled back to the hotel for dinner. It was 5:00 p.m. already.