I packed lightly for a few days excursion during which I intended to visit the Buddha in Lesham and climb a holy mountain aka Emei Shan before returning to Chengdu.
Lesham was thronging with Chinese tourists, the queue down the cliff from his head to his feet via the Staircase of Nine Turns was long and it was baking hot.
The Buddha is very old and huge.
Ad libbing from my guide book: It is 71m high, it's ears are 7m long, his eyes are 10m wide and apparently 6 people can stand on his big toenail. It is the largest in the world and it's carved out of a rock face.
Why was it created? Well again from the book: the waters were treacherous for shipping and in 713 AD a monk came up with the idea of carving a buddha into the rock face and filling the shoals with the debris generated. The monk, Haitong actually blinded himself trying to convince the government to hand over the necessary funds. The project was eventually given the go ahead and was completed in 803 AD.
Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to take a ferry to view it, it providing the best view point.
Fortunately I met a couple of Israelis that I'd exchanged pleasantries with a few days earlier in Chengdu. They were planning on going to Emei Shan and I asked if I could join them.
OK I can't drag this out anymore ;-)
