Amy has now moved to Leshan to work in a school there to cover, so we decided to have a weekend in Chengdu because we were going to go anyway to see the pandas and this worked out perfect timing to be able to go!
So I set off on Friday afternoon to Beijing airport and boarded my plane, I noticed that I was the only foreigner on the whole plane! I arrived in Chengdu just before 10pm and got a taxi to my hotel. I noticed that Chengdu was warmer than beijing and had more trees and less high-rise buildings. I also felt a little less safe than I do back in Beijing I’m not sure if that’s because I’m used to Beijing now or not.
Flying over Beijing..
I woke up early on Saturday morning, left the hotel and made my way the the bus station I got on a bus to Leshan where Amy is staying, it took around 2 hours I think, I was falling asleep on the bus and when I woke up I looked around and wondered where I was there was so many trees and lakes (this isn’t what I’m used to at all living in Beijing)!! When I arrived in Leshan I met Amy at her hotel and we made our way to the Giant Leshan Buddha.
The Leshan Giant Buddha was HUGE! It’s the biggest Buddha in China and I think it is the 2nd biggest Buddha in the world! We walked right to the bottom of it. During this visit was the worst case of “I feel like a celebrity” I’m not kidding you when I say Amy and I were literally the only foreigners there I think I saw about 3 others the whole time we were there, due to this we were stared at ALOT and asked (most of the time not even asked) to have photos of/with us. When we were lining up to go down to the bottom of the Buddha I was even handed a baby to hold over the barrier to have a picture with!!!
Here’s a picture of the Giant Buddha..
We then got a lift back to Chengdu and checked into a different hotel, when we arrived at the hotel they asked for our passports because to be able to stay in a hotel they need to see your passport and visa. Unfortunately Amy had forgotten her passport as nether of us had thought about her needing it! This meant she wasn’t aloud to stay at the hotel with me even though the room was booked for both of us. Luckily someone from the company lived nearby and she was able to stay there for the night.
We then went to Jinli Ancient street to have a look around and grab some dinner. This street had little shops and stalls as well as restaurants and bars. it was nice to walk around and have a look!
This is the street..
In Jinli Street there was a Sichuan Face Changing Opera performance so we decided to go and watch it. First there was a women pouring water into a cup through a long teapot and holding it in different ways to do so. The next part was strange and we didn’t really understand the point in it. It was literally a lady using over the top hand movements to pour hot water into different pots and pour in out again, that was it. 5 minutes left and me and Amy were wondering where the actual face changing opera was.. then a man entered the stage and definitely saved the show, his masks changed very quickly, it was very impressive and made it worth watching the weird tea lady before haha!
