Chengdu: Leshan Giant Buddha

Our trip to Chengdu was centered around seeing two things, the pandas and the Giant Buddha at Leshan.  We did many other awesome things in this city (visit a monastery and an authentic Tex-Mex restaurant), but those were our two main touristy objectives.

So why this Buddha?  Well, it's the largest (at 233 feet tall!) stone Buddha in the whole wide world.  It is carved into the side of a cliff along the coast of a convergence of not one, not two, but three rivers. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and seemed like a pretty cool thing to go see, if you were going to be in the region.  And hey, don'tcha know we were going to be in the area! If you want more specs on this Buddha, you can read about the history here.

Look at all those rivers!

Our hostel offered a tour to Leshan, but the lady working at the hostel told us it would be cheaper, just being the two of us, to simply take the public long-distance bus to Leshan, get on a city bus once we were in Leshan, and get to the site in that way.  We were a bit hesitant, but she made it sound easy, so that is what we did.

We found our way to the long distance bus depot just fine, and three hours later we found ourselves in the much smaller city of Leshan.  However, this is where our trip takes a turn for the sketch.  We got off that long-distance bus amid a cluster of cab drivers vying for our attention and our business.  We brushed them off with increasingly more desperate utterances of "bu yao" (don't want) and pushed our way to the bus stop.  There we waited a few minutes for the number 13 bus.  Now this bus looked, sounded, and operated like it had spent the last 30 years on rough, rough road.  This would not be the last sketch bus in a slightly sketchy town we would find ourselves on in the course of our travels in China, but it was the first.  I distinctly remember turning to Liv, telling her it was a pleasure getting to know her and expressing sorrow that we would not be able to further our burgeoning friendship.

This was the view from our bus.  In a land of billions, we were a little alarmed at how few people we were seeing. 

Despite pretty strong feelings of foreboding, we did not (obviously) meet with any unpleasantness.  We stayed on our bus for about 10 minutes, winding upwards through Leshan, which is built on a mountain (we were at a solid 45 degree angle pretty much the whole ride).  We saw the signs for the Leshan Giant Buddha (and had the help of some very nice fellow bus riders) got off the bus at the right stop and made our way into the park.

And Stairs. 

We were in luck!  Being off season (January in the mountains!), we were one of about seven people in the entire complex. The bus dropped us off in a deserted parking area and we walked over to the lady selling tickets into the park.  We bought our ticket and she directed us up a flight of stairs (it's always stairs).  The noise of the city faded away rapidly as we climbed these stairs. Along the staircase were small niches carved into the rock walls depicting either text or smaller stone figures.   When we reached the top, you walked a short distance over to the cliff-side and found yourself eye level (as in, the statues eyes) with the Giant Buddha.

Niches!

See, we are at Buddha's eye level.   Liv could probably fit in his ear. 

Along the side of this cliff is yet another staircase.  We climbed down said (slightly terrifying) staircase, stopping at intervals to take photos of this Giant Buddha from newly revealed perspectives.   We got to the bottom, so we were now eye level with his giant toes,  had a few more photo ops and then looped around and climbed up a much less steep (and less terrifying) staircase.  Once back at the top--though now we were on the other side of the giant Buddha, we were free to explore the remainder of the park.  It was a tad chilly--although still really green!--so we only wandered around for an hour or two, making our way towards the rear exit of the park.

Super scary stairs of death.  

And now his toes are our eye level.  He's got some big toes. 

We exited this park in the middle of nowhere.  We found ourselves on a mud road, with no one else around.  We could see a paved road in the distance that had a bit of traffic on it, and decided to make our way towards that.  By some miraculous stroke of luck (or urban planning--after all, this was probably the exit used by the droves of tourists that came to visit during peak tourist season) it just so happened a bus stop was right here.  And the bus that came by that stop?  The number 13 bus. So we hopped on, rode it to the end of the line, and got back on the long distance bus to Chengdu feeling like conquering world adventurers.

And that is where we ended our tour of the park.  We walked probably a half mile til we found the road and got back to pseudo-civilization. 

I'll leave you with this, possibly the best sign in the entire world.  It's hung outside the public restrooms in the park.