Leshan - The Giant Buddha

Wed, July 29

Mike

We got up at a reasonable time today. Breakfast in this hotel (Shudu Mansion) is on the 30th floor. The clerk did say, ”san shi lou,” but we didn't believe him and went to the third (san) floor, found nothing, and only then to the 30th (top) floor.

The circular dining area (think Hyatt Regency restaurant on the top floor) likely doesn't rotate any more. Even though it was pretty cloudy, we had great views of Chengdu, including a huge new development, cleared to bedrock, where no construction had yet started. Too bad the food didn't match the environment. The food was standard Chinese breakfast, but not well executed. Rather pedestrian, and it was hard to get any tea.

After breakfast, we headed out on the street. The weather was overcast but dry. We caught a 43 bus to Xinnanmen Bus Station (new south gate). We could have also caught the 48 or 48X.

We bought two tickets for 45 apiece for a bus leaving right away at 10 AM. It actually left closer to 10:15. Special feature: this bus handed out bottles of water AND had motion sickness bags (tell Jake Schwartz's wife that she will be getting new specimens for her bag collection from UE Air in China and from the Chengdu Express bus).

We arrived in Leshan 2 hours later, bought a city map, walked out and got a 13 bus to the Grand Buddha Park. The 13 bus seemed to travel every single street in Leshan before finally crossing the river and stopping in front of the park. It took 45 minutes for a trip that should have been a 5 - 10 min ride.

Entrance to the Grand Buddha and to the surrounding park was 130 Y, but 65 Y for seniors. I pointed to my gray hair, and these two fat old Americans got in for 65 Y apiece. Incidentally, lots of folks have been taking our pictures. We think that it is the exotic facial hair, but we are not sure.

At the entrance to the park, there are copies of Buddhas from all over the world. This park has a 170 foot sleeping Buddha, but we didn't see it and forgot to go back at the end of a hot tiring day. We did a climb of maybe 200 feet of steps to get to a smallish seated Buddha, then around and over and down and up to get to the top of the Grand Buddha, rising 71 m from the bottom near the water. At that point, there is a walk down steps on the cliff face to get the best views.

BUT before you can walk down, you must get in line. It was 2 PM, and the line was over 45 minutes long, in one of those Disney-like fences that go back and forth accordion style. Once we got into the walk down, the crushing really started. Chinese are very bad at pushing in line and pushing into a line. Anyway, we finally got down to the bottom around 3:30.

Then we took a longish walk along the river to the Wuyou Temple, across a smallish creek, and then up and up again. At the top we arrived in time to hear the beginning of the afternoon chant. Then we headed back down across the creek.

At this point, 5:20 PM, we should have retraced the cliff walk, toured the rest of the park, caught the 13 bus, revisited the whole town again, taken the two-hour bus back to Chengdu, found a bus back to the hotel or to restaurant row, etc.

Instead…..A woman approached, and offered to take us back to Xinnanmen Station for the same 45 Y fee, departing at 5:50 PM. So we got a cold beer and sat down to drink it. We were joined by a French couple, she from Wuhan originally. They had seen the eclipse near Wuhan. She, of course, spoke fluent Chinese. They too were going to accept the woman’s offer. Eventually, we were a group of 7 that included two German guys (one of whom had been studying in Beijing for 3 years, and also spoke fluent Chinese).

Around 6 PM we piled into a minivan to get out to the road, where we were going to meet the bus. Then we were told there was a problem, and we got into another minivan to go south a little farther (away from Chengdu). Finally, we met the bus going northward, got on, paid the 45 Y each, and started off. It was now 6:30 PM apx. An uneventful ride, except that Curtis was sitting several rows further back, where the shocks were shot on the bus.

At 8:45 PM we pulled into Chengdu, but the wrong bus station. This one was maybe 10 km south of Xinnanmen. Pandemonium erupted. Finally, the driver found someone to take us into Xinnanmen in a minivan.

The driver was clearly going north, but when we recognized that we were already downtown, we had him stop and we got out. We were in an area of some restaurants, and, it turned out, only 500 meters south of our hotel. We took suggestions to go to a hot pot restaurant, but finally landed at a place where you pick out your food, and they cook it as you like, or if you wish, as they like.

We picked out a smallish fish, and said, “ma la.” We also picked out a head of broccoli, a long eggplant, and some peanuts (presumably to go on the fish). We also asked for rice. What we got were: (1) a large bowl of egg fried rice, (2) a fish fried in a ma la sauce, but not anywhere as hot as that of the night before; (3) broccoli in garlic sauce; (4) eggplant with garlic and ginger; and (5) a plate of boiled peanuts. Along with a large beer, everything was fresh and quite tasty, but not very Szechuan. Total 65 Y.

We walked back to the hotel, and then out for a late internet session, and to bed. Have to get a 5:45 AM wake-up call, because of our early-ish plane tomorrow.

Curtis

We went to see the Giant Buddha of Leshan, Sichuan today. It is a two hour bus trip from Chengdu. Weather was cloudy and a little steamy, so we didn't try to take in the view from across the river. Went straight into the park and lucked out getting senior half price tickets. No ID was requested, so I guess we both look old enough.

What an amazing place. There is an outdoor museum with huge (but small by comparison to the Dafo "Big Buddha") red limestone carvings of replicas of Buddhas from all over Asia, including the Buddha of Kamakura (Japan) and a Pakistani figure, a Thai one and a number of others in many styles, as well as a four-armed dancing Shiva. All are amazing.

Then we walked up a long stairway to encounter some more figures, including a 1,000-armed and 1,000-eyed Avalokiteshvara (Kuanyin), and finally emerged at the top of the giant Dafo, on a level with the crown of the head. From the railing you can see across to the stairway zigzagging down to the feet, with a crowded slow-moving line of tiny people. You then have to wait in a line about the length of the crowded roller coaster lines at Disneyworld or Six Flags. Eventually (about 45 min. later) you get to descend and try to do your best to get clear shots with the camera. I think I got some good ones. You can see the tour boats down at the bottom trying to hold their position in the rather turbulent water. The story goes that the giant Buddha was built in order to calm the waters at the confluence of the Min, Dadu, and Qingyi rivers. The monk and sculptor, Haitong proposed the stupendous public works project in 713 CE as a protective icon to safeguard river traffic. The public artwork had a practical side as well, because the rubble dumped into the rivers served to calm the dangerous currents.

At last, reaching the bottom, we walked across the Haoshang bridge to the nearby Wuyou Monastery, which is an active monastery. We got there in time to hear and see the monks chanting sutras. It was quite an amazing experience to realize that Buddhism and many Buddhist monuments survive today in China in spite of periods of suppression, not only by the "cultural revolution," but in prior centuries by hostile regimes that have regarded it as a foreign encroachment that somehow threatens indigenous Chinese philosophies and power structures.

We had a rougher ride back on a different bus. Not really worthy of much detail, but finally got back to the right section of Chengdu and found a restaurant where you pick out your fish and your produce, and the kitchen does the rest. It was quite good and certainly fresh. No eel. I wanted to have some nice looking crayfish, but Mike doesn't like crayfish, and they didn't have any shrimp, so we settled for some kind of lakefish. They fried it with the familiar sweet pepper and ginger sauce.

We head to Xian tomorrow by plane. Looking forward to the Terracotta Army.