Leshan

So one of our last big events in Chengdu was to head to the Giant Buddha at Leshan. We hopped in a van and drove two hours to the Giant Buddha that had been carved into the side of a cliff over looking a river. As is typical of Chinese National Holiday, the Chinese were out in hordes. Apparently Chinese people are supposed to climb some kind of mountain during this holiday in order to prepare themselves for good things in the new year. I could also be making that last part up, but it sounds true so let’s go with it.

If you’ve ever spent any time in China during a Holiday, you know how crowded a population of 1.3 billion can be. This is especially exciting when you climb mountains because you never know if you’ll be allowed to walk down the path or just shoved over the edge by two short old ladies who think you are walking too slow. Despite the aggresively pushy hordes of people, the mountain was beautiful and the Buddha was really quite impressive. Here are some pictures:

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At the top getting ready to walk the stairs down to the base of the Buddha

About halfway down.

Travel buddies with the river behind us

At the base!

Partial view of the climb down