Our trip to Sichuan featured magnificent views of the natural beauty of Jiu Zhai Gou national park and surrounding sites. We also got glimpses of ethnic Tibetan and Qiang people's lives deep in the mountainous regions of Sichuan. Unfortunately, we also had to endure hours upon hours of obligatory shopping trips. But there was still more to see before we went home.
The most significant historical destination we would visit on this tour was the Leshan Giant Buddha (乐山大佛), a giant Buddha statue built on the side of an island mountain in the Tang dynasty in the 8th century. This stop, while short, was a pleasant surprise for me because I honestly had no idea that this famous landmark was located in Sichuan. Most tour groups seemed to stop at the base of the Buddha to get up close and personal, but as mentioned before, our tour group tended to spend more time at shopping destinations rather than the actual landmarks, so we ended up taking a small boat cruise that took us past the Buddha statue twice. On the plus side, we didn't have to squeeze among the undoubtedly thousands of Chinese tourists hanging out by the Buddha's toes, and it's probably easier to get "full body" shots of the statue from a distance:
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| Not every day you get to see a 1200-year-old giant Buddha! |
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| The scenery is nice, and the boat is fun, but that water doesn't look that good... |
Not far from the Giant Buddha lies another landmark that I never really knew was in Sichuan - the Emei mountains of Wuxia fame. Wuxia,
as discussed in this post from many, many moons ago, is a genre of literature/entertainment unique to China featuring stories that romanticize the chaotic, yet chivalrous nature of the martial arts world in various periods of Ancient China. According to Jin Yong, one of the most famous Wuxia authors, Emei mountain is the home of the Emei sect and school of martial arts founded by one Guo Xiang, the daughter of the main protagonist of
The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Jin Yong's most popular work.
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| No heroes or condors, but martial arts does exist in Emei Mountain |
In fact, Emei kung fu does exist, and we did have a chance to see it in this very nice show that we had to pay extra to see. The show featured skills that are somewhat unique to Sichuan, such as Emei Kung Fu (which, to be frank, didn't seem all that impressive to me), some special tricks using 6-foot tall wooden puppets, and most famously, mask changing:
The acrobats at Emei are so proficient at this classic "magic trick" that they can even do it using the 6-foot tall wooden puppets!
Some other shots from the show:
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| Baby Lukas enjoying the spectacles |
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| Calligraphy using a puppet |
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| The grand finale |
A side story about the characters in our tour group - one of the tourists was traveling with her son and his new bride, but their trip was essentially funded by her rich friend (whose daughter we talked about in Part III of this travelogue). However, as mentioned above, the awesome show that night at Emei mountain was an extra expense - one that this particular tourist did not want to pay. As such, she tried to convince the tour guide to tell her rich friend that the price had gone up so that her friend could pay for these extra ticket expenses as well! While we're on the subject, this particular tourist was such a cheapskate that for the whole tour, she bunked with her son and new bride! Even with no particular incidents, one can't imagine that to be a particularly comfy solution. But! On one particular night, the cot that she was sleeping on in their room collapsed and she managed to hurt herself mildly... but enough to cause a big uproar at the hotel, insisting that the hotel and/or the tour company pay 20,000 RMB in compensation. At the end of the tour, she had decided to settle for 5000...
Back to our main program, aside from spectacle and sound, Emei Mountain is actually famous for being one of the famous Buddhist mountains in China - and as such, there are a number of well-maintained temples in the area. We took the opportunity to visit a few of these:
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| 拜拜 |
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| What's a Buddhist temple without joss sticks? |
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| This auto-awesome gif came out super cool. I like how Fifi disappears at the end of it... |
After our visit to Emei mountain, we headed back towards the capital city of Sichuan, Chengdu. Along the way, we got to see some of the countryside and visit a small tourist town that was quite entertaining:
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| Ear-cleaning is something of a popular activity to partake in Sichuan |
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| These long noodles are served one piece per bowl! |
On getting back to Chengdu, we saw our last stage show (this was was included in the base tour fare, so everyone went this time). As you can see, China has no shortage of stage shows! While production value of this particular show was indeed grander than that of the show we saw at Emei mountain, in my honest opinion, the Emei show featured far greater feats of talent and skill - I can see why it was an extra charge!
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| Hanging out at "Overseas Chinese City" in Chengdu before the show |
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| High kick |
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| Catching a photo op with some of the stage performers |
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| The show went through the ancient history of China, starting with the Qin unification |
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| While I liked the other show better, the kids liked this one better because there were more flashy lights and loud music... |
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| A mock Qiang ethnicity wedding |
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| The finale of the show |
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| Chengdu at night, after the show |
Stay tuned for the final part of our Sichuan Adventure!
