Mission Accomplished

We caught a bus back to Chengdu from Emei Shan. Chengdu is one of the largest cities in China. They are currently building a subway line in the main area of town, so traffic was a nightmare. Even worse, city buses changed their routes with no rhyme or reason, so navigating the city was a pain. Additionally, Chengdu doesn't have too much in terms of landmarks or sites to see. BUT, they do have one biggie on the city limits, the Giant Panda Breeding Research Center.

We'll get to that in a minute, but first some other pictures. By the time we reached Chengdu, we already had our fill of obscure city temples, so we skipped those. Chengdu does have some great areas of the city that are renovated to look like old China. They really pull it off without looking fake. Our hotel in Chengdu was a traditional Chinese hotel with courtyard, and in fact, the entire street was called the architecture street with tons of renovated old buildings. During the day, the staff or other guests would push the tables together for improvised ping pong games!

Chengdu also has a lot of great parks. It's common to see entire families out in the parks either at the kid "fantasy land" where all the little girls wear pretty elaborate princess crowns or the older members playing cards or fishing in the park ponds with bamboo poles for their lunch. Here are some pics that were taken in or around the many parks of Chengdu. The picture below is pretty funny too look at it, and of course, it has a funny story. Inside the People's Park is a fun-house set in an abandoned underground tunnel. We had heard that it was pretty tacky, and I don't think the fun-house even reaches that. Articles like the tiger(?) below point the way to the actual fun-house which is just a particle board maze shrouded in complete darkness. After each turn, a motion display of some type pops up and tries to scare people. Unfortunately, all of the displays are of the same or lesser quality as the tiger you see below with most not even working. The scariest thing was the thought of breaking our necks from the total darkness. That was 5 yuan down the toilet.

Chengdu is also famous for the giant Mao Zedong statue that salutes the main city square. In the background stands the Chengdu Science and Technology Museum; something that Mao would have supported, no doubt. Although, just opposite Mao (unpictured) is a street overruning with capitalist delights from Gucci, Prada, Rolex, etc. I don't think Mao would have approved, but maybe that's why they placed the statue there poised to shame any Chinese shoppers exiting the store. We were also lucky enough to partake in some great Western food in Chengdu. Tex-Mex!! It was our second attempt at "Mexican" cuisine, and it came of much better than the first. If you're ever in Chengdu or Shanghai, be sure to hit Peter's Tex-Mex (Sorry, no pics. We were more concerned with eating). There's really not much else to say about Chengdu, so bring on the pandas! The research center is a ways out of town. We decided to take off pretty early because the pandas generally sleep all day after their massive breakfast. The plan worked, and we got to see pandas of all shapes and sizes in action. They have different areas for the pandas based on their size, we decided to see what the big 'uns were up to first. We were greeted warmly.We were just in time to see the adult pandas eating. They eat a ton of bamboo, and once one started, we didn't see it stop. Pandas have a special thumb that helps them grasp and hold the bamboo. The peel off the leaves in, hold a bunch in their hand, and start munching. We've got a video of it, after the picture below.

After watching pandas eat for a while, we headed over to the sub-adult pandas. We saw a lot more pandas eating, but this time they were having a family meal.

They sit close so that they can prop up their bamboo on their nearest friend. Once again, we watched a lot of eating (and even some green pooing) and then made our way to the adolescent pandas (don't worry, they're next to last). The adolescents have a lot more energy. They had eaten, and were already out playing. Going down isn't as easy as going up. He held himself in this position before finally just tumbling to the ground. He was eager to get to his friend below so they could wrestle. Close to the adolescent pen is where they keep all the real panda cubs, affectionally called "the babies" by Darbie. I have seen a lot of cute things in my life, but upon seeing "the babies" I had to resist the urge to curl up into the fetal position and melt. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures of the babies because they are afraid the babies would get scared. The cubs were very active. They are kept in little rooms with teeter-totters, balls, and climbing towers, and they happily play with all those things. They love to try to squeeze through things, and climb to the top of things, only to fall down to the ground and do it all over again. One room contained four or five babies that were about to be fed. They were amazingly playful with the workers, hugging their legs as soon as they walk in the room. They got very excited when they saw their baby bottles and each time they were given one they would grab it with two paws, shove it into their mouths, and instantly fall onto their backs in glee. Each time this would happen this would draw "awwws" and giggles from the small crowd gathered to watch. Remembering our dear readers, I broke the rules (and got busted), and took a quick shot when a baby panda came over to the window to greet us. He's waving.

After we managed to pull ourselves away from the cubs, it was time for Darbie to get better acquainted with a panda. She had to get sterilized and covered so she wouldn't spread her nasty human germs to the panda.I didn't miss this moment, and we now proudly present the world premiere of Darbie's panda holding video:

Here's a picture of Darbie and "Little Girl" in case you want to put it on a coffee mug, mouse pad or t-shirt.

Oh yeah, we saw some red pandas, but we won't spend too much time with them. After all, they're the lesser panda. They're pretty cute too, though, it is pretty nasty how they attack each other's tails. You can see a pretty nasty tail in the picture below.

Eww. That's why they are they lesser panda.

Miles Traveled: Emei to Chengdu - 80 miles

Total: 1685 miles

DB&KM

Meet the Monkeys

On our way back to Chengdu, we stopped over to see Mt. Emei. The mountain, like many mountains in China, is famous for some unapparent reason. But, it is a UNESCO world heritage site, and truly one of the more beautiful spots we visited during our trip. The mountain is pretty tall, over 10,000 feet, so needless to say, we couldn't hike to the top in one day. We decided to take a bus to the mid-way point of the mountain, cable car up a little higher and hike back down. There's also an option to take a two hour bus ride directly to the top (which is supposed to be beautiful), but anyone that's been on a Chinese bus for 2 hours, windy mountain roads or not, knows that can be distressing.

Remember how I said China charges for everything? Can you imagine paying $120/person to visit a mountain?, well that's the case at Mt. Emei. That doesn't even include the bus ride up the mountain (another $45/person), the cable car to the middle ($30/person), or any of the monasteries, monkey food, etc. Some of you think, well it is RMB, but that's a heck of a lot for native Chinese. We got into Disneyland for about as much as it took to get to Mt. Emei. The mountain had a lot to deliver. When we got to our destination, we found ourselves once again in a Winter Wonderland.

If you look at the path behind Darbie, you'll see what we were dealing with. Packed snow and ice covered the trail. Not too big of a deal until we came to the stair portion of the descent. Our faithful readers will remember that the Chinese prefer concrete stair paths to hiking trails on their mountains; this presents a problem during the winter months. After slipping down a few steps, we were fortunate enough to find home-made Chinese crampons! Kendall was eager to slip some on since all he had on the trip were indoor soccer shoes.

Pretty hi-tech. But, they actually did the job; no more slips. As you can see, Kendall's foot is a little bigger than the Chinese average. As we hiked further down the mountain, the snow started to melt and disappear. We eagerly made our way to Mt. Emei's most famous attraction, the monkeys!These Tibetan Macaques are native to the mountain. There are signs all around the mountain asking visitors not to feed anything other than their special monkey food. We bought a few packs of the monkey food expecting it to last us a good while. Not so. As we entered the habitat where most of the monkeys reside and play, a monkey came over and took all three of our complete packets. We didn't even get to open the packets up for the monkey, he took care of all that (check out the picture above, excuse his junk). He shoved all three packets in his mouth, went back to his favorite spot, and started munching. We decided that we might need some more monkey food. Further up the trail a more aggressive monkey, clearly the monkey leader, took our replacement monkey food and growled at as for more. Thankfully, the mountain employs even more aggressive Chinese ladies with large bamboo poles. Here's a video, unfortunately after we just had a scary monkey confrontation, listen to the fear in my voice.




Needless to say, we didn't stay at the monkey exhibit as long as we had originally planned. After watching the ladies whack a few more monkeys, we left, not forgetting to watch our backs. We passed a lot more scenic places on our way down. Waterfalls, blue lakes, and streams all dotted the landscape of the mountain. Here are a few more pictures.

I had to put this picture in black and white, otherwise it would just be a very white blur. At least this way we are supposed to be that white. Below you'll see a pretty cool bridge over some very blue water.


Mt. Emei is the most beautiful mountain that we've been. I would love to return - if the admission ticket doesn't rise - and go all the way to the top where a huge golden statue sits. There are also many monasteries to visit, even the famous Crouching Tiger Monastery. After we were done with the mountain, we grabbed some food and bused to our next destination, Chengdu.

Miles from Leshan to Emei Shan - 21 miles

Total: 1605 miles

DB & KM

I like Big Buddhas and I cannot lie

After the 1,000 Buddha cliffs, we turned our attention to the main attaction of Leshan, DaFo, which literally means Big Buddha. Because the Buddha is so big, there are many different ways to see him. We decided to take them all! It's said that Dafo was built because the three rivers that convulge around Leshan were very dangerous. A monk set out to build the giant Buddha so his presence would calm the river and protect travelers. No doubt, it worked (while we were there at least). The rivers were very stagnant. For our first view of DaFo, we walked along the Leshan boardwalk until, in the foggy distance, a giant head peaked out from behind a cliff. It was our first glimpse of how big this thing really is. We then headed to a tiny island that stands directly across the river from the big guy in an ancient ferry powered by an equally old engine and engineer pictured to the right. We sat so low in the water it was up to our shoulders! The rocks that make up the island are a plethora of colors, all chipped away from the rock when they carved DaFo many years ago. We saw purple, red, green, blue, and every other color you could imagine. Pretty, pretty, pretty big. The only way Dafo could be any more amazing was if he talked. If any country could make this happen, it's China (or Disney World). After viewing Dafo from afar, we had to get closer. We bused it over to the other side of the river and entered the park. There are some pretty cool sites before and after the Largest Buddah in the world. Take for example, the picture below. Darbie's riding the auspicious white marble tiger that lives in the cave behind.

First we started at the head and walked down the sheer cliff side on a tiny staircase carved into the side all the way to his equally giant feet. All right, because there's not much else to say besides, "You wouldn't believe how big this thing is until you see it with your own eyes," we'll let the pictures do the work here.

That really white spot is Kendall at the base of the Big Buddha. Just in case you haven't got it yet, we've got yet another helpful video (told you we had lots!).

After Dafo, came what has to be Jimbo's favorite moment of the trip. We were getting pretty hungry by that point and decided to stop at one of the many Chinese mom and pop restaurants a.k.a the local fishing village. After sitting down in a truly lovely riverside patio, we decided to order some sweet-and-sour fish. The cook relayed the information to his wife, who then brought out a very fresh fish, wriggling by a string attached to its dorsel fin, for our approval. After an astonished Jimbo said yes to the fish, she turned around whacked the fish on the ground next to us, and made her way to the kitchen. A short time later, the fish returned, as our lunch. We've got proof!

The proud cook and future consumers with the fish a-dangling. You can see the pure joy on Jimbo's face, and this is before the fish had the life whacked out of it.

Before and after aptly demonstrated. For those true animal advocates out there let us calm you by telling you, it was delicious.

After lunch we pedicabbed it over to another site to see the largest reclining Buddha in the world, which is carved into a mountain, a la Stone Mountain (without the Southern Pride laser show, unfortunately) for all our Georgian readers out there. Not quite as impressive as that landmark, but the rest of the park is kind of a Buddhist themepark with some pretty cool stuff. However, we were getting a little tired of seeing Buddhas by then, so you might be too. Instead, here is what might be the greatest video of our trip taken during the bumpy pedicab ride.

Here are a few more pics of various parts of Leshan. Below is Darbie next to a really cool bridge close to Dafo.

Ok, we couldn't resist, here's the giant reclining Buddha, or Kendall's preference "Stone Mountain Buddha." By the way, that's just the head and upper torso, it would be impossible to get the entire thing in one shot unless your in a helicopter.Darbie decided to walk into an ancient tomb that has graves inside. This is what happened when Kendall shut the gate behind her, pure fear (she's about to wet her pants)!

Wow, that is a lot of blogging for one little city. Leshan has some of the coolest sites and nicest people in China. We all agreed we would go back there again any time. While we were walking the boardwalk, Kendall happened to find some nice, rare Chinese graffitti that said it best:

PEACE!

Miles Traveled: Xi'an to Leshan - 609 miles

Total: 1584 miles

DB & KM

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