So the visit in Chengdu did not start off to the best it could have. Eliza and I planned on visiting temples and tourist sights around Chengdu on Thursday (January 31) but we ran into a few issues. Our first stop was the Big and Small Alley, which is an alley that features a lot of old buildings with stores inside. We took a taxi there and did not have too many issues on that front.
"Oldest" Starbucks I've ever seen.
After the Big and Small Alley we asked for some directions to the Green Ram temple and took a short bus ride to the temple.
After the Green Ram Temple we had wanted to visit the Tibetan quarter of Chengdu along with a temple named Wuhou temple. We unfortunately did not visit the temple because I then proceeded to get us lost for over an hour, that by the time we did reach the Tibetan quarter we wanted to just go back to the hostel and eat. We made it back to the hostel and ate at the Thai restaurant right in front of the hostel complex, it was absolutely delicious and made us feel marginally better after the morning we had had.
On Friday we decided to head out to Leshan (a nearby city) to see the Grand Buddha, which is apparently the tallest in the world. It was a two hour bus trip to Leshan, we left after 8 but we had issues getting our ticket. Since we couldn't read the ticket we were unsure if they were right. We bought another ticket each just to be sure but we did get on the right bus that took us out to Leshan. We then took a city bus to the Buddha Scenic Area and began to walk around the park.
Dragon Pool, legend has it when Buddha came to this cliffside the dragon that lived there turned himself stone to protect the area.
A tiger living on the cliff turned itself into a jade statue.
15100km from home...well Ottawa to be exact.
Permanent fencing to coral the tourists during the peak season, there was no need for this that day.
Very narrow stairway down to the feet of the Grand Buddha.
Mini buddhas, carved into the wall along the cliff side.
There is a story with this picture.
And this one. So when Eliza moved to pose for the picture above she knocked her water bottle out of her pocket. The only thing we could do was watch as the bottle roll down 12 steps until it stopped to wait for us at the turn.
Very tall, very steep steps.
Pathway over the river.
Sichuan Hotpot for dinner. It was actually quite good.
Parabola: a geometrical shape consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance (an object that is propelled away from the Earth and then drawn back from earth forms a parabola). We assume they mean "Do not throw things."
No idea what they mean on this one.
This one is just funny.
Brings us to Saturday and the Chengdu Panda Research and Breeding Centre. We had to get up at 6:15 to catch a 7:20 van to the base that was 40 minutes away. We met some nice tourists from Denmark and we actually toured around the complex together. Here come the pictures, are you ready for the cuteness?
The best way to eat breakfast, pull the food down to you while you recline back against the ground.
Just hanging out.
Babies!!!!
Sub-adults, still tiny.
Red Pandas!
Tonight we are going to Sichuan Opera, which is something that I'm actually kind of excited about since I really don't know too much about what to expect.
Tomorrow night we leave for Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors.
Awwwwww!!!!!
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