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

The Terracotta Army

Due to China's turbulent history, many great relics and sites have either been lost or destroyed. However, some of the greatest archaeological finds in the world continue to turn up in China. Most of these finds aren't as great as the Terracotta Army, but they are usually discovered in a similar fashion. As many people know, the Terracotta Army is a huge collection of soldiers, horses, carts, and weapons that was found completely underground in large pits, not even 40 years ago. Since then, archaeologists continue to excavate this vast area and find more and more relics. How did they find it? Look below,

Yep, what is probably the greatest archaeological find ever was discovered by some villagers digging a well. This sign is at the base of the largest pit at the excavation site. Here's Darbie and Jimbo to give you an introduction of the Main Pit of the Warriors.

I've heard a lot of tourists leave the exhibit pretty unhappy, and I guess if you're expecting to get to excavate one or touch one for yourself, I understand. However, it's hard not to appreciate the sheer magnitude of this discovery. The excavation site isn't actually in Xi'an, but about an hour down a long, bumpy road by bus. It was made even more pleasant by a man across the aisle that had to burp (eggy burps) every half-mile or so, yet our little Darbie persevered.

The army protects the tomb of China's very first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. He was quite busy during his lifetime, as he is the first emperor to unify China, as well as standardize its speech, weights, and measures. Of course, to do all these things (especially in 200 BCE) you kind of have to be pretty ruthless, and he was. He ruled, and many people died, by his sword. He made the capitol Chang'an (now Xi'an), and the city enjoyed a very rich city life because of it's political significance, and perhaps more importantly, because it was later the terminus of the Silk Road. Why did he want this huge army buried with him? That's a good question, no one really knows for sure. Although, there are two guesses, one side believes he was afraid of the afterlife (because of what he did during his lifetime), or that he fully believed that death would not end his reign as emperor, therefore he would need an army.

The excavation site has 3 large pits, though one was closed for renovation or excavation while we were there. We decided to save the greatest pit for last. Each pit was discovered held up by thick beams that supported roofs over the pits. Unfortunately, some of the roofs collapsed under the weight of the earth above, and this was the result.

Still pretty cool though, right? My personal favorite is when just enough happened to knock the soldiers head off, and leave a haunting Bed Knobs and Broomsticks-type soldier.

Originally, most of these soldiers were carrying weapons. For the most part, the weapons were made of wood that decayed over the thousands of years they were buried. If you look at the right hand of the soldier in the picture above, you can see where he once held a weapon of some type. Fortunately, a museum is also on-site that displays a few of the weapons unearthed. But back to Pit 2, the first pit we saw that had these.Well, what was the cavalry supposed to ride in the afterlife, centaurs? Plenty of horses have been excavated, and closer to the actual tomb of Qin himself, bronze horses and chariots were found. They are in the museum as well, and a picture of them can be seen below. (Sorry they are encased in glass covered in fingerprints). Check out how the chariot could block arrows.

The museum also explains how certain designs on each soldier display the soldier's rank and skill. The higher up the soldier, the fewer there are. It's sometime hard to see the different ranks from the pits, so the museum had some examples.
I believe the picture above is an archer, while the one below is straight, kung-fu fighting. You can clearly see the difference in their armor and hair styles, which all help indicate rank.
Ok, enough museum stuff. On to the biggest pit, aptly called Pit #1. As I wrote above, it's the first pit that was discovered, and it contains the sign marking the well. As you can see, it's huge and could easily contain a football field, if not two. Unfortunately, visitors have to walk around the perimeter of the excavation, but the next video will hopefully get in tight enough to help you appreciate the enormity and insanity of army. It also marks the first time you'll hear Kendall start the narration of a video by saying, "All right, so here...".


Here are some more shots from Pit #1, containing approximately 6,000 soldiers.
The observant blog reader will notice that a lot of the warriors in the pictures above not only have different faces, postures, and clothes, but that some also appear lighter. That's because, every one of these warriors was painted! You can really see this in the picture directly above. More horses, this time you can see how their mouths are open to accept the bit and bridle, all of which were once buried. Next to the horses is a charioteer, his hands out guiding the reigns.

Sorry about the quality of the shot, but above you'll see some reconstructed warriors. They take remains from the soldiers in the demolished pits and put them back together like jigsaw puzzles. Sounds like fun for a rainy day.

Talk about a great idea, a Terracotta warrior puzzle.

Miles Travelled:

Qingdao - Xi'an: 975 miles

DB&KM

Xi'an: The City for (History) Lovers

Greetings! We're back from our Spring Festival travels, and we have a lot of stories, pictures, and videos to share. For the most part, we were very lucky and everything went smoothly during our journey. Here's our list of cities visited: Xi'an, Leshan, Emei Shan, Chengdu, Lhasa, Hong Kong, and Sanya. We'll be blogging about our trip in that order. So, without further delay,

Xi'an

Xi'an is most famous for its Terracotta Warriors. We knew we were definitely going to see them, but we didn't really know what else was going to entertain us while we were there for a few days. Luckily, Xi'an has plenty of fun sites to offer. I know many of you were worried that the bad winter storms would effect our travel, thankfully it didn't, but that doesn't mean we didn't see a lot of snow in Xi'an. Here's our first picture taken on the trip.

You'll notice that from here on out that we're pretty bundled up since most of outings were outdoors, and involved a lot of walking. Anyway, this is Darbie in the heart of downtown Xi'an. Behind her is the Bell Tower, but more on that later. Xi'an is one of the only cities in China that still has it's city wall in tact. The walls were built in the 14th century, and encase downtown Xi'an. We were able to walk on the city walls (through blizzard conditions), and it's almost unbelievable how thick and tall they are.

Darbie and Jimbo are standing outside the city walls, which are about 12 meters high (39 ft for the metrically-challenged). On the left is one of the many tunnels providing road access to the interior, they are usually jammed with traffic. Also, if you notice, we're standing on a bridge, which crosses over the moat that still surrounds the city walls.

Here, I'm on top of the wall looking down on what is one of the most appealing parts of Xi'an, ancient Chinese architecture in a very modern city. Our guide book says that people either love or hate Xi'an, and we clearly came down on the former. Darbie and Jimbo walking on the city walls. This shows just how wide the walls are, and they actually narrow as they get to the top! At the base, the wall is about 18 meters thick (60 ft). Also, you can see on the right that Xi'an was preparing New Year's displays with Chinese scenes. We saw many in construction on our brisk wall along the wall.

In the center of Xi'an is the Bell Tower that was mentioned earlier. The Bell Tower once functioned as an alarm clock, with all the bells inside struck at sunrise. Just down the road from the Bell Tower is its counterpart, the Drum tower where drums were beaten at sunset. We got to visit both, and while they aren't the greatest exhibits, they offer ceremonial music displays and great views of the interior city. For those of you interested in hearing the music, check out the video below.

For most of the trip, we were advocates of "slow travel." We walked if we could, stopped when we wanted, and ate wherever we felt like. A few memorable dining experiences took place in Xi'an. The local specialty is yangrou paomo, lamb meat stew. We had the local dish a couple of times, and I can endorse it as the epitome of slow eating. Once you've ordered it, the server brings out a bowl of bread which you then have to tear into tiny bits. She had to keep badgering us to tear it smaller and smaller, basically until your fingers hurt. Then they take the torn bread back to the kitchen and put the stew in, which is basically just lamb and noodles. While it isn't the tastiest dish, I can definitely see how a hot, filling dish is popular in winter. I was also pleased to notice that "The Real Deal" Holyfield had at some point visited Xi'an and had a bowl himself (begging the question whether or not there are little Chinese Evander's running around.).

Yet another cool site in Xi'an is the Big Goose Pagoda. It is touted as Xi'an's most famous landmark. The pagoda is really, really old (completed in the 7th Century CE), and is where China's most famous Buddhist monk Hsuan-tsang brought back Buddhist scriptures from India. They've also surrounded the pagoda with a pretty interesting temple, with some great Buddhist ivory, stone, and marble carvings depicting the Buddha's life. In front of the temple is a statue of Hsuan-tsang himself. Although they promise wonderful things inside the pagoda, there's little more to see or do than simply look out over the city, and even that can be less than great on a typical, smoggy day. Nevertheless, the outside of pagoda and its surrounding park and temple is worth the trip if you're in Xi'an. Contrary to what the pictures display, I don't believe the Big Goose Pagoda is leaning. Below you can check out two great Darbie pics. First, enjoying a nice winter scene in front of a Buddhist shrine in the park. Last, working on her graceful sword skills in hopes that she can one day become a Buddhist nun with amazing psychic powers.

In addition, we also hit the Shaanxi History Museum which contains a lot of great displays and exhibits, the Folk House which is quaint, historic house with little to offer, and the Forest of Stelae Museum which can get brutally cold with all those tall stone tablets and no heat. But do check out the museum inside and the side streets along the way. Here's a glimpse.

That's a less-than-brief look at Xi'an for you, and we didn't even cover the Muslim Quarter, an area of back alleys and side streets, which has loads of eating and shopping awaiting every tourist and as soon as we stepped onto it we were beckoned into the "secret" back rooms of vendors. Xi'an was a pleasant surprise, with a great blending of ancient and modern. I wish it was the prototype for every Chinese city, though to be fair, no city's history holds a candle to the history that has taken place in and around Xi'an. Visit and see for yourself!

What's that? Ah yes, the Terracotta Army will be covered in our next session, we don't want to exhaust our dear readers. But, to appease you, here's a great video of Jimbo's first hotpot meal. I think it was a memorable experience to say the least.

We're back, spread the word!

DB & KM