4/11/2009

Day 30 - Chengdu: Ancient Town and Leshan Giant Buddha

Today we headed out of Chengdu on an hour drive to an ancient village. Part of the village had been recently refurbished in the traditional style, while much of the original village was still there. Many of the villagers still live here, making and selling their handicrafts. There are even traditional local supermarkets and restaurants. Running through the main street (which is only for walking) is a beautiful man made river with stepping stones in the shapes of turtles and water wheels. It is truly beautiful. Mum and Dad had a go at making one of the water wheels turn. They gathered quite a crowd as many of the locals and Chinese tourist's legs are not long enough to make the wheel turn. We spent over an hour at the village which ends where it meets the Yellow Dragon River.

A 2hr drive took us to Leshan where we had lunch in a beautiful restaurant where we were given enough food to feed a small army. A short drive took us to the see the Giant Buddha. Aunty Jess, Mum and I choose to see the Buddha by boat.

The Buddha is made from sandstone overlooking the river and it was built to prevent the local village from flooding. A local Monk had a vision, and it took him 3 years to collect the money to build it, and it took 90 years to build with many workers. Since the Buddha was constructed the village has never been flooded since. Dad and Uncle Scotty decided to see the Buddha up close by walking and climbing up 333 stairs to reach the 81m high Buddha's head, they then descended lots more stairs and were able to touch the Buddha's feet.

While we waited for them to return an old man made a paper cut out silhouette of Mum and Aunty Jess' heads, it cost them 10 yuan ($1.50 each). He even signed his work, and showed them that he was famous as he had had an article written about him in the paper. For dinner we went back to the Shamrock for dinner Dad finally got his Fish'n'Chips and Mum had a Quesadilla, while I enjoyed wedges.