Last week, over the October holiday, Robbie and I flew to Sichuan for a week, where we met up with his cousin, Roger and girlfriend Eva who were spending a month backpacking around China. We visited some amazing places and it really reminded me how much fun you can have travelling around this country – something that my Beijing-fueled cynicsm had made me forget. It was also great to finally get to go to Sichuan which I had wanted to visit ever since I first arrived here. There were a lot a pics so I have split them over two photo streams:
We spent the first day in Chendu itself visiting some local temples and parks, taking in a Sichuan opera show (which I slept through the majority of), and investigating the local nightlife – Club Babi – before heading out the following morning and the crack of dawn to visit the Panda Breeding Centre outside the city. This this was the best time of day to see the Panda’s at their most active and we managed to catch them being fed and even saw a very small baby being protected by its mother.
Later that day we left Chengdu and headed south to visit the LeShan Great Buddha, an en enormous Buddha carved into a cliff facing on to the river below. It was crawling with people because of the October holiday but this actually made the experience the more amusing to see these ants crawling all over this huge carved edifice. That evening we headed on to the base of Emei Shan, one of China’s most sacred buddhist mountains. Early the following morning we hopped on the local bus the the drop off point near the summit, hoping for spectacular views out acroos Sichuan. Unfortunately we arrived in thick fog so the views were not to be and we began our descent. We then spend two days trecking along the steep steps carved into the mountain, visiting the monasteries along the way, and avoiding the thieving hands of the monkeys en route. Going was hard work and by the time we returned to Chengdu the following day we were all hobbling and nursing our aching legs.
