Mar 26, 2015, Thursday, Leshan and Mt. Emei (Emeishan)

Today was an early (8:00am) pick up by our guide and driver.  We took a 2+ hour drive to Leshan to see the giant Buddha. 

The Leshan Giant Buddha was carved out of the side of a red sandstone mountain and is the world’s largest carved stone Buddha at 71 meters (233 feet) high.  His shoulders are 28 meters (92 feet) wide, almost wide enough to set a basketball court on.  The Buddha is flanked by two guardian statues.  The Buddha was carved over a 90 year period beginning in 713 during the Tang Dynasty.  Pretty darn awesome.  The Chinese don’t do anything by halves.  The Buddha was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

We first took a boat ride on the Mingjiang River and sat in front of the statue for a while to take pictures.  

Leshan city

View from the river

One of the "Guardians" flanking the Buddha.

The suspended walkway leaving the Buddha.

The crowd snaking its way back up the cliff.

After returning we then drove to the statue and walked up to the top. 

Crowd at the Buddha and Leshan across the river.

After lunch we drove to another city and took a 2 hour bus ride up Emeishan (Mt. Emei).  Mt. Emei is one of the sacred mountains in China and in 1996 was listed by UNESCO as a World Natural and Cultural Heritage site.  From the bus stop, at around 8,200 feet, it was quite a walk up the mountain to a cable car that took us the rest of the way up to the Golden Summit (10,103 feet).  It was then a short walk to the hotel.

After a short rest we walked up to a view point for the sunset.  While waiting for the sunset we watched a group of women dancing in the square.  It looked easy enough and certainly interesting so Mary joined them for one dance.  It was a lot harder than it looked…although the 10,000 foot elevation probably contributed to the overall sense of exhaustion after the dance.

Mary dancing with the group.

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Apparently the sunsets and sunrises on Mt. Emei are really beautiful if the clouds aren’t too many and too high.  They were too many and too high this evening.  No spectacular sunset but it was a bit pretty. 

However, the buildings and statuary at the top were very interesting and worth the look.