Leshan's Buddha and a Healthy Sweat

Only a quick 2 hours away from downtown Chengdu is the city of Leshan. A very small, rural town that has only one reason for being on any map, being the home to the largest Buddha statue in the world. Sitting in the side of a cliff, it's over 230 feet tall and something that simply is unnecessarily huge but great. Rumor is the guy was built over 1200 years ago to safeguard ships traveling on the river that bisects the city he overlooks. Well, nowadays the only ships seen going by hold tourists taking pictures of what makes Leshan great.

The day started with taking a cab to the bus station at 830 in the morning (directly during rush hour) and hopping into the 920 bus to Leshan (going back through rush hour traffic again). When we finally pulled in at about 1130, we were ready to get things rolling. The trip started with the less-famous, well hidden, and equally impressive Laying Buddha.

From here we made our walk through a sort-of theme park of Buddhism. Decorated caves and temples were all along the way while incense filled the air. A few short minutes later we came across a huge flight of stairs with a small place to pray up top for those so inclined. My train of thought was, "I've come all the way from Florida to Leshan, China. I can at least walk up these stairs now that I'm here." And I'm glad I did. At the top I found chains to place a lock onto that is supposed to bring good luck to my family (you're welcome, guys). I chained it up, tossed the key on top of a much smaller Buddha than I had come to see, and kept on my way.

From here, it was an extremely hot and humid walk to the Giant Buddha - or Da Fu as it's known locally. By the time I walked up to the head of the Buddha I was already drenched in sweat, but I couldn't have been happier. This was actually something I had heard about before I came to China. I had seen it on TV and the internet. This guy was big.

Immediately when I saw the top of his head I really was able to put into proportion how huge this thing is. Carved directly into the side of the cliff, it sits overlooking the river and part of the more modern city. Starting at eye-level, you're able to descend stairs right next to him so that you can truly get a feel for how big he is. After winding down plenty of stairs and stopping for too many photo ops, we got to the base to look up all the way up. Standing in awe, this is what sat next to me...

And that about wrapped up the trip to Leshan. From there we got on the bus and headed back into Chengdu. I've noticed in the last couple months that living here has quite a bit of perks - one of them being that I can take only 10 hours out of my day to go visit the biggest Buddha in the world. Next perk, Xi'an and it's Terra Cotta Warriors.