Birding in Mount Emei from the Foot to the Summit
Renowned for being one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, Mount Emei is one of the very top tourist attractions in China. It is lying in an area of rich biodiversity that makes it a great birding location. Most of the birding spots we will visit on this trip are away from tourists because they can only be accessed by hiking. We will hike to explore all the highlight species at different elevations of the mountain in 5 days.
At the high elevation, we can expect Great Parrotbill, Brown Parrotbill, Grey-hooded Parrotbill, Three-toed Parrotbill, Spotted Bush Warbler, Russet Bush Warbler, Chestnut-crowned Bush Warbler, etc.
At the middle elevation, we can expect Bar-winged Wren Babbler, Emei Shan Liocichla, Purple Cochoa, Temminck's Tragopan, Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Speckled Wood Pigeon, Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Grey-hooded Fulvetta, Grey-headed Parrotbill, Ashy-throated Parrotbill, Golden Parrotbill, Black-chinned Yuhina, Indochinese Yuhina, Chestnut-flanked White-eye, Rusty Laughingthrush, Spotted Laughingthrush, Red-winged Laughingthrush, Blue-winged Minla, Ferruginous Flycatcher, Slaty-blue Flycatcher, Fujian Niltava, etc.
At the low elevation, we can expect Chinese Bamboo Partridge, Great Barbet, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blyth's Shrike Babbler, Green Shrike Babbler, Collared Finchbill, etc.
Tour Info Sheet
| Highlight Birds | Bar-winged Wren Babbler, Emei Shan Liocichla, Purple Cochoa, Temminck's Tragopan, Great Parrotbill, Brown Parrotbill, Three-toed Parrotbill, Grey-hooded Parrotbill, Golden Parrotbill, Grey-hooded Fulvetta, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Emei Shan Liocichla, Red-winged Laughingthruhrush, Spotted Laughingthrush, Black-faced Laughingthrush, Darjeeling Woodpecker, Crimson-breasted Woodpecker, Speckled Piculet, Vinaceous Rosefinch, White-throated Needletail, Coal Tit, Fire-capped Tit, Ashy-throated Warbler, Sichuan Leaf Warbler, Emei Leaf Warbler, Large-billed Leaf Warbler, Yellowish-bellied Bush Warbler, Aberrant Bush Warbler, Sichuan Bush Warbler, Pygmy Cupwing, Black Bulbul, Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Rufous-capped Babbler, Red-billed Leiothrix, Red-tailed Minla, Blue-winged Minla, Ferruginous Flycatcher, Snowy-browed Flycatcher, Taiga Flycatcher, etc. |
|---|---|
| Numbers of Species to Expect | 70-100 |
| Ease of Birding | mostly easy birding with a few tricky species |
| Other Attractions | Chinese Buddhism culture, Golden Summit, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva statue, Huazang Temple |
| Photography Opportunities | birding focused but with very good photography chances |
| Habitats Covered | subtropical forests |
| Expected Climate | see details in the "pre-trip briefings" |
| Physical Requirements | moderate to demanding, good physical strength is required |
| Accommodation | mostly comfortable, basic for one night stay in Xianfeng Monastery |
What makes this trip irreplaceable?
1. A great diversity of bird species and good numbers of endemics in Mount Emei.
2. Visit one of the most famous sacred Buddhist mountains in China, enjoy the unique culture of Chinese Buddhism and splendid architecture.
3. Experienced guides with great knowledge about local birds and rich experiences of guiding travelers from different countries.
4. A short program with great flexibility. This trip can be customized to meet your needs and preferences better.
5. Years of working as a local partner for some prestigious western companies specialized in birds and wildlife.
6. A strong logistic team in the office to ensure our trip goes smoothly and every participant has a comfortable and memorable journey.
Gallery
Dates & Prices
| Dates | Booking Status | Price | Single Supplement | Group Size | Guide | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Year Round | Space Available | 1,200USD/pax | 145USD/pax | Departure from 2 | Local Guide | Customizable |
Slide the sheet to the left to see the full sheet if you are viewing it on your phone or tablet.
The cost includes the following:
1. Private transportation throughout the trip, including pick-up and drop-off at the hotel or airport; Bullet train ticket as listed in the itinerary.
2. All meals from lunch on day 1 to lunch on day 5.
3. All the entrance tickets for places listed in the itinerary including cable cars and shuttle buses.
4. Hotel stays from the first day to the last day, two clients occupy one twin-bed room on a sharing basis at nice 3 or 4-star hotels in big cities and local best guesthouses in remote areas.
5. Bottled water and snacks throughout the trip.
6. Service charges of a professional and experienced local bird guide throughout the whole trip.
7. China domestic travel insurance.
8. Service of all logistic supports.
The cost does not include the following:
a. Drinks during meals.
b. Extra charges due to changes in the itinerary from the client's side or factors beyond the control of AlpineBirding such as natural disasters or government policy changes.
c. Discretionary tips to guides and drivers.
d. All personal expenses such as laundry service.
e. ANY AIRFARE.
f. Any program not listed in the itinerary.
* Please be aware that the price is inapplicable during any Chinese official holidays including but not limited to Chinese New Year, Labour Day, National Day, etc. Please contact us to confirm the price if your trip date covers any Chinese holidays.
Itinerary
Tour Map
Day 1: Chengdu to Mount Emei.
Meet your private bird guide and driver in Chengdu, either at your hotel or at the airport. If time permits, we can have a short visit to the Chengdu Botanical Garden which is considered as one of the best city parks for birding due to its big diversity of floras and high forest coverage. We can find some urban and special resident birds here, such as Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Chinese Bulbul, White-browed Laughingthrush, Red-billed Leiothrix, Japanese White-eye, Chinese Blackbird, Chinese Grosbeak, Collared Finchbill, Long-tailed Shrike, Fork-tailed Sunbird, Hoopoe, etc.
After our exploration, we will take a bullet train to Emei, then take the shuttle bus and get transferred to the high elevation area of Mount Emei.
Mount Emei is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. The mountain sits at the western edge of the Sichuan Basin with the Daxiangling Mountains located in its west. A large surrounding area of countryside is geologically known as the Permian Emeishan Large Igneous Province, a large igneous province generated by the Emeishan Traps volcanic eruptions during the Permian Period. At 3,099 meters, Mount Emei is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. It has been recorded as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. The first Buddhist temple built here in the 1st century A.D. in the beautiful surroundings of the summit is believed to be the first Buddhist temple built in China. The addition of other temples turned the site into one of Buddhism's holiest sites. Over the centuries, the cultural treasures grew in number. Mount Emei is also notable for its exceptionally diverse vegetation, ranging from subtropical to subalpine pine forests. Some of the trees here are more than 1,000 years old. With the rich biodiversity, Mount Emei is a great birding location. We will spend three full days looking for different species at different altitudes.
Day 2: Golden Summit & surrounds.
Today we spend the whole day birding near the Golden Summit area, the high-altitude area of Mount Emei. At an elevation of about 3,000 meters, there are abundant alpine coniferous forests and alpine thickets. It provides a good habitat for many high-altitude birds, especially parrotbills, bush warblers, etc. Here we have chances to find Himalayan Swiftlet, Coal Tit, Rufous-vented Tit, Grey-crested Tit, Great Parrotbill, Brown Parrotbill, Grey-hooded Parrotbill, Three-toed Parrotbill, Spotted Bush Warbler, Russet Bush Warbler, Chestnut-crowned Bush Warbler, Grey-sided Bush Warbler, Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler, Yellowish-bellied Bush Warbler, Aberrant Bush Warbler, Buff-barred Warbler, Hume's Warbler, Sichuan Leaf Warbler, Alpine Leaf Warbler, Bianchi's Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Large-billed Leaf Warbler, Grey-hooded Fulvetta, White-collared Yuhina, Elliot's Laughingthrush, Black-faced Laughingthrush, Red-billed Leiothrix, Chestnut Thrush, White-bellied Redstart, White-browed Bush Robin, Golden Bush Robin, Rufous-breasted Accentor, Dark-rumped Rosefinch, Vinaceous Rosefinch, Dark-breasted Rosefinch, Grey-headed Bullfinch, etc.
Day 3: Leidongping to Xianfeng Monastery.
It's going to be a little tough today as we will trek 10km on steps from Leidongping down to Xianfeng Monastery. The elevation changes from 2,450m to 1,950m. Along the way, there are rich broad-leaved forests and bamboo bushes that are ideal for woodland birds at middle altitudes. We will look for birds including Bar-winged Wren Babbler, Emei Shan Liocichla, Purple Cochoa, Temminck's Tragopan, Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Speckled Wood Pigeon, Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, Asian Koel, Large Hawk Cuckoo, White-throated Needletail, Himalayan Swiftlet, Pacific Swift, Collared Owlet, Asian Barred Owlet, Darjeeling Woodpecker, Crimson-breasted Woodpecker, Bay Woodpecker, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Hair-crested Drongo, Eurasian Jay, Grey Treepie, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Yellow-browed Tit, Yellow-bellied Tit, Pere David's Tit, Pygmy Cupwing, Black Bulbul, Ashy-throated Warbler, Martens's Warbler, Alström's Warbler, Emei Leaf Warbler, Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Sulphur-breasted Warbler, Rufous-faced Warbler, Chestnut-headed Tesia, Black-throated Tit, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Grey-hooded Fulvetta, Grey-headed Parrotbill, Ashy-throated Parrotbill, Golden Parrotbill, Black-chinned Yuhina, Indochinese Yuhina, Chestnut-flanked White-eye, Rusty Laughingthrush, Spotted Laughingthrush, Red-winged Laughingthrush, Blue-winged Minla, Ferruginous Flycatcher, Slaty-blue Flycatcher, Fujian Niltava, White-bellied Redstart, Spotted Forktail, Slaty-backed Forktail, Fork-tailed Sunbird, etc. Please note that today we have to stay in the monastery, both lodging and food can be very basic.
Day 4: Xianfeng Monastery to Baoguo Temple.
Today is another trekking day, we will trek 10km on steps from Xianfeng Monastery down to Wuxiangang Parking Lot, then take a shuttle bus to the Baoguo Temple area. The elevation changes from 1,950m to 600m. We will have nice chances to try our targets of middle elevation again.
Day 5: Baoguo Temple to Chengdu.
Birding at low-altitude forests this morning. We will search for birds like Chinese Bamboo Partridge, Great Barbet, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blyth's Shrike-Babbler, Green Shrike Babbler, Collared Finchbill, Light-vented Bulbul, Mountain Bulbul, Emei Leaf Warbler, Ashy-throated Warbler, Rufous-faced Warbler, Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler, White-browed Laughingthrush, Buffy Laughingthrush, Black-headed Sibia, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, etc.
Following lunch, we will take a bullet train back to Chengdu. This will conclude the services for this scheduled itinerary from AlpineBirding.
Gentle Reminder:
1. Please note this trip requires good physical strength for lots of hiking and climbing. Participants of this trip need very good physical conditions.
2. The bird species mentioned in the itinerary are just for your reference, it changes with the seasons. We may tune the itinerary according to the latest bird information to maximize our chances.
3. We are more than happy to assist with hotel booking, flight booking, etc. before or after the trip to make your travel more enjoyable and comfortable, please feel free to let us know in advance.
Guide(s)
We will arrange one of our best local guides for this trip who has rich experience of guiding tours in this region. The followings are some of our professional guides who have guided tours in this area for many years.
Bella Zhang
Bella, the director of AlpineBirding, graduated from Sichuan Agricultural University with a Bachelor's Degree. She joined AlpineBirding in early 2016 and became the director of AlpineBirding in 2018. She was born and grown up in a Bai ethnic family in Yunnan Province which boasts of the largest number of bird species in China. Her interests toward birds started with her observation of a Long-tailed Minivet in her mom's garden at a very young age. As she grows up, the interests and love toward birds become stronger and stronger. Because of that, she found AlpineBirding before graduation and joined the company for further learning of birds. Bella has guided a number of birding trips in cooperation with AlpineBirding guide in the past years, her passion, readiness to help, and detail-oriented attitude have won her lots of praise from our clients.
Linked Tours
For birders, Sichuan is an unmissable destination due to its diversity of bird resources and high density of endemic birds. If your time allows, we can easily extend this trip and add more interesting birding sites into the itinerary. The followings are some birding excursions around Chengdu, all the excursions are customizable.
Reports
We don't have a report available for this tour at this stage, please feel free to email us, we are more than happy to answer any of your questions and share the latest bird information with you.
Testimonials
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Wonderful Birding trip with AlpineBirding
On November 2019 we had an amazing birding trip to Sichuan area with AlpineBirding.
We went for 6 days to Wolong, Longcanggou and Labahe, and thanks to Shay, our guide, we manage to see many beautiful birds in an incredible scenery.
One of the highlights were 4 different Red Pandas that gave us amazing view!!!
You can't go wrong with AlpineBirding and I can highly recommend to travel in Sichuan and china with them, and I hope to do that again myself.
Yohay Wasserlauf / Western Sichuan October 13, 2019
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The Birds of Balang Shan
My husband and I are just returned from an amazing and very professional Birding Tour by Alpine Birding in the Wolong Preserve/Balang Shan area; Western Sichuan Province. Gorgeous forests and alpine landscapes, the dividing line between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai Plateau. Awe-inspiring views!
We had a 1 1/2 day experience, all inclusive with a private driver (to and from and during the location), delicious meals and snacks and water provided, a room for the overnight stay, and our extraordinary Birding Guide Shay who showed and instructed us on far more birds than we could've hoped to see had we been on our own! He generously shared his superior equipment and bird identification field guide, and went above and beyond our expectations in stopping at many many locations to look for birds! We were impressed by his knowledge of bird identification and his deftness of scoping! Attention to detail was one of the hallmarks of our experience; We felt very well taken care of:)
While our trip was of necessity a simple overnight/daytrip, I highly recommend a longer excursion; We will definitely do another AlpineBirding tour in the future:)
Alice and Silas / Balang Mountain Excursion May 25, 2019
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Birding in Sichuan
Arrange a birding / hiking trip in northwestern Sichuan. Our guide Parus Yang was a good guide with excellent ornithology knowledge. We saw despite not the best season lots of birds and mammals.
Accomodation which was arranged was fine.
Mathieu W / Northwest Sichuan June 19, 2015
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Hi, Philip
I have been busy answering e-mails and writing text for our newsletter and other things since getting back as lots of things needed doing - but things already calming down again.Thank you for your kind words and can I also say it was a complete pleasure working with you too, the words I said on our final evening were all completely from the heart and I can honestly say that the combination of you and Parus made for an excellent experience from the wildlife and cultural perspective. The guests were all telling me how much they enjoyed the holiday and how much your input made the holiday for them. To have someone who could explain and point out aspects of Chinese culture as diverse as architecture, food, religion, day to day life and more was just fantastic. I would say with hand on heart that this was one of the best trips I have led and for that I have you to thankI am also very aware that you had a huge amount to think about during the trip – timing the travel days to arrive at a sensible time while still giving us time to enjoy a few stops along the way is not always easy and you did it very well indeed. Organising our evening meals and breakfasts in the field and so much more is all time consuming and needs thinking through and again you did a fabulous job. In fact the trip simply worked very well indeed and I feel very privileged to have worked with you and visited your wonderful country.
I think the itinerary we chose was superb and clearly both the Terracotta Warriors at the start and pandas at the wend were both extremely popular.——Roy Atkins, a professional Bird Guide from UK in Custom Birding Trip in Sichuan in 2015
Roy Atkins / Custom Birding Trip in Sichuan May 20, 2015
