Sichuan Province - Leshan

For our second day in Sichuan we got up early and rode a bus for about 2.5 hours to the town of Leshan with the goal of seeing the Leshan Giant Buddha and the Buddha Park.  It was the first time for all of us to not be in a city in China.  It was pretty interesting to see the Chinese countryside and how different it was from the vast metropolis’ of Shanghai and Chengdu.  The countryside was a beautiful lush green and dotted with small houses and villages.  It didn’t look like there was much money making its way out to these small communities and it seemed that the people out here lived a pretty simple life, and a very different way of life than the people in the cities.

We arrived at the Giant Buddha Park at around 10 AM.  It was swarming with people.  I had no idea where all these people came from.  We were way out in the middle of nowhere and there were just seas of people.  But anyway, we got into the park and right by the entrance were guys with monkeys.  I didn’t think twice, I asked the dude how much, pulled out my money, and next thing you know I was holding a monkey!  It was amazing.  I held him for a minute, got a few pictures, and smiled the whole time.  I couldn’t get the stupid grin off my face for hours. 

We then went deeper in the park and saw a bunch of different buddhas, walked up a bunch of stairs, saw a ton of people everywhere, and got stopped loads of times by people wanting to take pictures with us.  Sichuan doesn’t see quite as many foreigners… and since it was national holiday there were lots of travelers from other parts of China as well.  So all that combined to make us almost like minor celebrities.  Many people would say “hello” when we walked by, many would stare, a few would say “laowai” and point and stare.  At least 10 times, and maybe more, people asked for pictures with us.  It was mostly teenage girls that asked for pictures with me, but there were also a few groups of men that asked for pictures with my roommates, and a few families that wanted pictures for their family photo album with a group of foreigners.

So with seeing the sights, and taking pictures, and having our pictures taken, it took us a couple of hours to get up to the Leshan Giant Buddha (the world’s largest Buddha).  By the time we got there, there was a massive line.  We got in the line, stood for about an hour, got to where we thought we would be allowed to go down to see the Buddha, only to realize that we were just let in to another area with another massive line.  We stood for about another hour, barely moving, when we came to another area that we realized just housed another massive line we decided to hop out of line and just explore the park a little bit more.  Plus we saw a small area for viewing the head of the Buddha that didn’t require us to wait.  We got down to that area, took a few pictures, and then explored the park some more.  It would have been great to see more of the Buddha, but it wasn’t worth standing in line for 5 or 6 hours to see him.  Plus we still had to get back to Leshan town and figure out how to get bus tickets to return home.

We took a taxi back to the town of Leshan.  We bought bus tickets for later in the day so we had a few hours to kill.  Leshan was a big town by some standards, but by Chinese standards it’s pretty small.  It has a population of about 150,000 people.  While the setting seemed urban, it felt anything but.  Walking around the town was an experience.  More people stared here than anywhere else we’ve been yet in China.  People were in shock to see foreigners wandering around their town.  We went to a small street market and it seemed like business just stopped.  My roommates bought some jewelry and I bought a pocket knife…a huge group of people surrounded us as we attempted to negotiate prices.  They were laughing at our horrible Chinese and probably even worse bargaining skills.  It was a lot of fun though and everyone was very friendly. 

We then ate lunch at a small hole in the wall restaurant.  I ordered You Xian Rou Si , a Sichuan dish, which was delicious.  They didn’t have an English menu and I didn’t know what else they’d have.  I figured they’d have that dish though because it is a specialty from the region.  They laughed and smiled when I ordered it, I think they were pleased that I knew of the food from their province.  We also ordered some rice and veggies.  It was all great and of course dirt cheap. After we ate we headed back to Chengdu to get ready for another trip the next day.