SUZEN IN CHINA (CONTINUED)

Another installment from Ai New York City instructor SuZen from China! The link to photos appears at the end of her blog post ... enjoy!

It sure has been an adventure. From Dunhuang I arrived in Chengdu after a long, frustrating and exhausting trip with last minute plane cancellations, making connections at Xi’an and my cell phone running out of minutes. I won’t go into details - perhaps at another time. Fortunately I was picked up at the Chengdu airport about 11PM by the most wonderful woman, Zhen (English name, Grace) who is a Servas host. She drove me to her apartment and introduced me to husband, Yue. Both are the most generous and sweetest people. In the AM I met their cute 3 year little girl, Liang. Since there is so much to write about and so little time I will share one of the many highlights and that is the Leshan Great Buddha.

China is so large with so many places to see that are so varied. From the Gobi Desert to the tall mountains of Emei. I decided to take a bus to Leshan instead of doing a tour which definitely would have been a lot easier, but I had done a tour a few days before and was quite frustrated that we was rushed through the main attraction and then had to sit through a 40 minute knife and water purifer presentation. More on that later. The truth is I love photographing and I like to take my time. So after fighting off 2 people to get a taxi (not an easy feat in China) I got to the bus station and boarded the bus. Leshan is only 2 hours from Chengdu. The night before, Yue had made a reservation for me at a cheap hotel. Upon arriving in Leshan, it seemed that none of the taxi drivers knew it and wouldn’t drive me. I found a lovely woman in the bus station, who spoke English (another rare thing). She actually went outside to find a taxi and tell the driver where to take me. I must say I have met some of the most helpful people here. When I got to the hotel and saw that the room did not have a western toilet (a major requirement) I decided to find another place. I called another hotel to see if they had rooms and was about to find taxi to go there. Here I am schlepping my bags, when this young man with his father asked me if I was looking for a hotel and that there was a nice one nearby. I asked if it was theirs and he said no. They walked me there and took me up to the 17th floor where there was a really wonderful place. I was shown a room on the 18th floor that had a wonderful outdoor terrace rapped around the top floor and looked out onto the river and the reclining Buddha. Perfect!! I freshened up and went downstairs and the young man and father were there waiting to see if everything was OK. They proceeded to show me a good local restaurant and walked me to the bus stop to show me where to get the #13 bus to go to the great Buddha. I asked if they’d like to join me for lunch and said they were had eaten and needed to go do other things. Once again, I am so impressed with the generosity of the Chinese.

After eating 10 dumplings, I hopped the #13 bus to the Great Buddha finally. I bought a ticket to enter, and then walked up lots of steps. Along the way are several Buddhas carved into the mountain as well as a temple on the top. And then I saw the giant head - it’s WOW! Well worth the effort of getting there. The Leshan Great Buddha is carved into a mountain. It is 71 meters tall (that’s over 230 feet) and has three-meter-long (about 11 feet) fingers. The eight-meter-long (about 27 feet) instep is big enough for one hundred people to sit on and the 28-meter-wide (about 92 feet) shoulder is large enough to be a basketball playground.. WOW!! It is the largest carved stone Buddha in the world and it faces Mt Emei, where I was going next. This statue of Buddha Maitreya was begun in the 713 in the Tang Dynasty, and finished in the year 803, the statue took people more than 90 years to carve. During these years, thousands of workers had expended their efforts and wisdom on the project. As the biggest carved stone Buddha in the world, Leshan Giant Buddha is featured in poetry, song and story.

If you haven't read my other entry go to: www.suzennyc.com and click on blog at the top. Would love to hear from you.

The adventure continues...

love,
SuZen

PS: Gmail is a real problem in China - so for now do not send anything to that address, pls use suzennyc2002@yahoo.com. Thx!!

Check out the amazing photos by clicking below!

http://gallery.me.com/suzennyc#100980