Day 2 we went outside of the city to visit the Giant Buddha at Leshan….
อ่านทริปนี้ภาษาไทย คลิกที่นี่ค่ะ
Day2 – Big Buddha Leshan (Chengdu)
We started early with a 9:00 AM pickup, car, driver, and tour guide provided by the tour company.
The tour guide introduced himself as “Wang Yi”, his English was great, and he had a lot of fun stories to share!!!!
After we checked out of the Yinhe Dynasty Hotel, the journey began…
It was raining during the 1-hour ride but traffic was light, and Wang-Yi stopped for us to take a break midway. I can’t remember the name but we stopped at a tea factory where you can shop and taste the free teas (clean bathroom!).
It took about 2 hours to get to the pier where Wang-Yi got our tickets for the boat ride (Y60, ~$10) which was included in the tour package.
First, we rode the boat in front of the Buddha carving and after that, we climbed the mountain to see the Buddha up close!
(Left) Mountain View (Right) Water view
It took about 30 minutes to gather people on the boat, we had to get a full load before they would move!
For safety, they provided life jackets for everyone on board, and you must wear it if not the lady on the boat will keep yelling at you (in Chinese) until you put it on!
WangYi explained that our boat will ride to the front of the Giant Buddha and then turn around to stop for pictures about 10-20 minutes and then come back to the pier.
AND that we needed to be on top of the boat!
It took about 10 minutes from the pier to the Giant Buddha. But wow… really amazing, the huge beautiful thing in front of us!!!
Everybody tried to get pictures, as much as they could, but we had plenty of time and no need to push…
I got some great pics!!!
They also have photo services on the boat that they sell for about 20CNY/picture ($3.33). So we tried to get the picture with them. I think it’s a good idea to get pictures because they have a nice picture zone just for you…so nobody will interrupt your pictures, and you can take off the life jacket with nobody yelling at you!
But something was a little wrong, they kept taking pictures and moving us around for more, it seemed like it will never stop!
So we talked with Wang-Yi about how many and how much we owed them now?!?!? But totally, it’s about 300Y ($50) for 19 pictures 5×7 inches and all laminated! I got took a little… but they really are great pictures, and I’m OK that they made a few dollars off of me. So what the heck… go with the flow!
The posture created by the photographer!
We got about 15 minutes around the Giant Buddha on that boat before heading back to the pier.
After that ride, it’s time for lunch! There are so many restaurants all the way from the pier to Giant Buddha Mountain. Wang-Yi took us for a local lunch, it was nice and good food! But I didn’t get a chance to shop around the restaurants!
Even this lunch was included in the program, but I still checked with Wang-Yi to see how much it was??? He told me about 60Y each!
After lunch, it’s time for my work out!!!
Wang-Yi leads us up to the mountain where the Giant Buddha is.
It’s a nice walkway and it’s kind of easy for us to walk up!
But well, I made this trip because my dad told me about the miracle of the Giant Buddha…
As the Giant Buddha is facing the river, history said that this river created a whirlpool and killed many Chinese fishermen and sank vessels traveling down. A Chinese monk decided to carve a Giant Buddha that he hoped would calm that turbulent water! And it worked! No more whirlpool after the Buddha was made!!!
Yes, it’s not only magic or miracle but science too. Falling rock during the carving of the Buddha actually changed the river currents and magic… No more whirlpool!
Wang-Yi was surprised that I already knew this story. But he also told us there are 3 rivers joined in front of the Giant Buddha that’s why the current was so strong.
Construction started in 713 and took about 90 years with 3 generations of labors to finish this Giant Buddha. Its 71 meters (~233 feet) high and 28 meters (~92 feet) wide. The shoulder is large enough to be a basketball playground!!!
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This place boasts the largest seated stone-carved Buddha in the world. Up until a few years ago, it was the second-largest Buddha sculpture in the world but the two Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by dynamite in March 2001.
Look at the below picture…that’s your first sight when you step on top of the mountain!
Wang-Yi showed us around the temple a little bit, but I felt like I wanted to see the Giant Buddha now!
And I think Wang-Yi could feel that he took us to the walkway around the Giant Buddha.
This is one way of walking down (and another way of walking up). It’s kind of narrow, only one person at a time to walk down.
But I don’t know how to explain the steps that we walked down and saw the Buddha up close! It’s so worth it!!!
(Left) we’re in front of the buddha on the boat (Right) We’re in front of the buddha on the ground
Wang-Yi seemed OK for us to take the photos around the Buddha’s feet.
And after that, it’s time to go up the mountain to go down to our car (totally, it would be 4 times up and down. Up from the roadside to the top and get down to see the Buddha’s feet and go up back to the top then we can go down back the road! )
Well, as I said…that one thing I don’t like about Wang-Yi…he didn’t stop for shopping that much!
But it’s just about time from our tour program to check into the other hotel by the Emei Mountain which is about 45 minutes away.
Our hotel is “Emei Hot Spring Water”, it’s nice and clean but no English TV… This hotel is very popular for Hot Springs. You will see all the shops to sell swimming suits.
Wang-Yi helped us to check-in and we had about 2 hours to meet him for dinner.
It’s another free meal from the program but I didn’t feel that hungry. So we took a quick dinner and talked about tomorrow’s plan THAT I HAD TO WAKE UP ABOUT 5 AM and get ready to leave the hotel by 6 AM!!! (happened during my vacation…!)
Next to where we have dinner is a park, and it’s a nice park that you can walk around to visit many temples. But it’s too late, there is no temple open for us to check out…I found the sign in Thai (Right)
I walked around, found some shops (a little bit), and drank some local tea…before I went back to the hotel and watched Chinese TV!!!
Day 3 the Emei Mountain..we will go up the mountain and visit 2 temples up there…Stay tuned!!!
Revised Date: 5/27/2020
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