Big Buddha, Emei Mountain

Trip Start Aug 26, 2006

Trip End Sep 09, 2006

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Flag of China Emei, China
Wednesday, September 6, 2006

After a nice night in Chengdu, I woke up early to take the bus to Leshan, home of the world's biggest Buddha, carved into a mountainside 1300 years ago! After checking out of the room, I headed to the bus station to purchase a ticket. While I was waiting to board the bus, I was told to wait. I took this as a sign that the bus wasn't boarding at the moment. I headed over the snack counter to purchase some small things before returning to the gate. At my gate, a woman started announcing something, but I didn't know if it was for my bus or not. I tried to translate the best I could for like 5 minutes before I just handed her my ticket to look at it. She motioned me onto the bus, and we were off immediately. This incident made me really mad because I could have missed my bus. The reason I couldn't understand what she was saying was because she was speaking Sichuan-hua! The local dialects are really starting to get annoying because it's not helping me with my listening comprehension

. Sichuan-hua sounds almost as bad as Guangdonghua (sorry to all of you Canto speakers, but, seriously, it does!) Why can't this country just make everyone speak one language?!

The Big Buddha was pretty cool, although it doesn't really use up much time. It's a good thing that it's housed in a park with lots of other things to see. Lots of Buddhas everywhere! The one crazy thing about the place is the number of people that come to visit it. To stand in front of the Big Buddha, you have to descend a flight of stairs which are right along the mountain carving. The line moves so slow, that I think it took me almost an hour of standing in line just to get down. And then you only use about 5 minutes in front of the statue to take a picture or two. OH, well! I guess its still worth it...

AFter that, I just caught a ride to Emei Shan, where I am, currently. Nice small town. I'm glad I wont' be spending too much time here, though. I'll have to wake up at 3 in the morning to catch a bus to the top of the mountain in order to see the sun rise. This is one of the most popular things to do on the mountain. I figured its one of the things I have to do while I'm here.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be heading back to Chengdu to spend my last days in the West, checking out the city, going to a panda research center, and then heading back to Shanghai.

I'll be back in the U.S. in less than a week! It's all pretty crazy considering how much time I've spent here. I'm getting pretty comfortable with this country, but still not as comfortable as I am in the U.S. It'll be nice to be able to understand T.V. again.

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