Leshan: Happiest little city in China

Xi'an was great, but we were eager to move on to our second destination. Due to the demand for train tickets, we decided to fly to Chengdu, and then take a 2 hour passenger bus to the much smaller city. The bus stayed on a new, very smooth expressway which provided us with great views of the Sichuan (the province we were in) countryside. Terraced crops hugged the hills that guided the expressway to Leshan. Some might find it interesting that, as one travels further away from cities, it is true that buildings do get smaller and more sparse, but the Chinese there still live in apartments or shared buildings.

As we stepped off the bus at Leshan a hoarde of pedicab and taxi drivers assaulted all shouting "DaFo!! You Go?" We told them no thanks and shooed them away. Leshan is world famous for its Big Buddha (dafo). Most travellers to Leshan come on short daytrips, see Dafo, and depart. But, being advocates of slow travel, we decided to stay for a couple nights. Our first outing was, in fact, not to Dafo, but to another Buddhist attraction, the 1,000 Buddha Cliffs. The cliffs were in neighboring Jiajiang, which involved another hour bus ride, but they turned out to be well worth the trip. After a short taxi ride, we found ourselves in the most rural environment we'd visited in China, hands down. We kept to the path until we finally saw what appeared to be a ticket office (China charges for nearly every tourist attraction no matter how quaint or out of the way), and made our way inside the "park." We were greeted by a silent, pastoral landscape which is what it must have been to visit China only a few decades ago. Because of its location, there weren't many visitors. As we made our way down closer to the river, the cliffs and their carvings started becoming visible.

The carvings were impressive indeed. Little hollowed-out squares of varying sizes contained shrines to various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Hundreds of the carvings dotted the cliffs jutting out over the calm landscape and rushing river.

The carvings were everywhere. It seemed as if there was no point too daunting to the carvers. Some of the oldest carvings date back 2,000 years. Unfortunately, some of those carvings featured faceless Buddhas due to destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Thankfully, they were good enough to save me a seat and prepare my enlightened halo. The attraction does not take too long to walk through, nevertheless we found ourselves drawn into the beauty of its natural surroundings. So, we kept on walking. We happened upon a monastery, and across the path were fields where a water buffalo grazed with its calf. We saw a nice trail up the cliffs themselves. We followed, and the trail gave us commanding views of the scenery around us. We kept uncovering unexpected treats. As we got to the top of the cliffs and followed the trail, we were able to view a few farmers harvesting bamboo in rather treacherous territory. Above you'll see Darbie next to the river and fields that were across from the monastery which you can see in the following picture.

Below is a shot from the path that took us up the side of the cliffs. Not an easy climb, but well worth it.

If you look closely in this next, quick video you can see the farmers chopping down some bamboo. If you're having trouble finding them in the growth, look for the sterotypical Chinese filed hats made of straw.

We took our time walking around Leshan. It has a great boardwalk next to the river, and the town's beauty is enhanced exponentially at night when they turn on their street lights.

Although, it's most likely those were just there for the upcoming Spring Festival. The whole town was excited, and it seemed like the entire population was out walking the streets or parks. The people of Leshan are wonderful, always smiling and saying, "Hello!". Despite the cold, people were happy to out-and-about with each other. It is really similar to the Holiday season back in the States.

They even go caroling! We came across a community choir along the boardwalk and stopped for a listen. They read the music off the big screen behind the conductor. No notes or sheet music, but pure number sight-reading. This seems to be the preferred method in China. They were very nice, and tried to get us to join. Below is the remaining city wall of Leshan, not quite up to Xi'an levels. I had to get a picture of this guy. He was out doing what most of the other Leshanians were doing, chilling in the park.

Lastly, we came across a school where kids were doing their Spring Festival crafts. Instead of doing paperplate Santa Clauses, the kids write couplets. The Chinese hang these traditional good luck messages outside their doors around the New Year. Here's a little girl working on her couplet and demonstrating very good calligraphy skills. You wouldn't believe how fast she could do this.

I wish I could do that. Dafo is next!

DB & KM