Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha Rocking Everywhere

The Leshan Buddha was no where near my radar until Jenna mentioned that she saw it on her trip to Chengdu. I’m here for 4 days, so might as well right? I got my panda loving in, so I can spend some time seeing the world’s tallest Buddha if I’m so close. Let me just say, I was not let down.

I met up with Lenka, who I met in the hostel. She is from the Czech Republic and we met the first day I was here. It was an awesome coincidence because neither of us set an alarm, but managed to both be in the lobby at the same time. Coincidences continued when we hopped on the same bus as Chris, who Lenka met the day before. So the three of us hung together and saw the Buddha.

The bus trip there is about 2.5 hours. At the station we hop into a van (typical “buses” for not may people in China), are sitting there for a few minutes when the door opens, words are said, and we are supposed to move to a different van… all before leaving Chengdu. The trip is fine, we arrive in Leshan (where the Buddha is) and the driver pulls into a gas station and opens the door. We assume this means we are here and get out, so we cross the street to the bus stop. Apparently that’s not what it meant. Chris sees the driver on the median of the street shouting and waving to us. I guess he just needed gas. It was nice because he ended up driving us all the way there. Or rather, to another van driver who drove us all the way. We were just getting shuttled around a lot.

Eventually, we got there. I got a student discount too, which is always fun. After a bunch of stairs, you are suddenly *poof* there… along with thousands of other people. The first thing you see is the top of Buddha’s head. He’s got some cool curly hair.

Literally pushed Chinese people out of my way, although it looks like not completely successfully. Interesting fact about Chinese culture- there is no such thing as personal space. If they want the picture, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been waiting- they will shove in front of you. They will stand directly behind you, all up in your business trying to see over your shoulder. I’ve been picking up social cues, and find that this kind of behavior is acceptable, so being the adaptable traveler I am, I shoved right along with them today. Also Chris is a much more experienced traveler than I am, and he was egging me on, so I naturally went with it.

This is literally the tallest Buddha in the world. From the top, you can’t even see the bottom. It’s AWESOME.

There is a staircase to walk down the side, and it’s pretty narrow except at the top. Pictured is what things look like without the zoom. There are umbrellas everywhere, tons of people in those cute little hats, and selfie sticks blocking every shot. It’s hard to see in this picture… but people are crowded everywhere, and touching you. It’s important to hold onto the hand rail, because you may get pushed a little too hard and domino down the stairs.

Just look! You can’t even see his feet yet! Apparently his nails are the size of the “average person”… who knows what that even means.

Big Buddha Feet.

At the bottom, I was getting a little shaky. I didn’t eat much before this, and it was around 2 already… this seems to be a theme. Get busy with something cool, forget to eat, get cranky. It was also extremely hot. And a surprising physical effort to walk up and down the stairs. I  had braided my hair the night before to attempt to have it be all curly and super-modely right, but it was far too hot to take it down. (first world problem…) So yeah, it was hot, but a really cool experience.

Woohoo!

Then we began the trek up the steps again. At the top, I rewarded myself with some ice cream. I was hot and it was delicious. It tasted kind of like funky yogurt. Also I’ve noticed they don’t really have ice cream shops where you can get like a scoop, but rather just sell heaps of the pre-packaged ice cream bars. Still delicious, just an observation.

We mosied down and stopped through some temples on the way.

I still find it so beautiful, it hasn’t worn off on me yet. 🙂

We found our way back to the bus and left back for Chengdu. Leshan’s Grand Buddha definitely delivered.

Thanks for checking in on my last big adventure while I’m in China! As a bonus, here is a picture of me with a Sichuan Opera performer who was doing some free opera at our hostel with a partner. It’s screechy and gave me enough 0f a taste to maybe save my money on it tomorrow. Hehe. But the costumes and makeup is cool!