We packed our 3-day packs for the mountain trip and left Chengdu early in the morning by bus to Leshan. Early afternoon, we visited the Leshan Grand Buddha, a 71 meter tall, droopy-eyed Buddha that was carved into a cliff during the Tang Dynasty (AD713). This tourist attraction was packed with visitors because of China's May Day/Labor Day week. We took pictures from the top by the Buddha's head but the line was way too long to go down to the foot of the carving.

Across from the Grand Buddha attraction was a strip of snack kiosks and run-down restaurants catering to tourists. Jenny brought us into one place where people freely threw peanut shells and cigarette butts on the floor. Emery ordered bamboo shoots and I ordered some sickeningly sweet and stinky fried rice.

Afterwards, we took another bus to the foot of Emei Shan and had a smooth cable car ride up to the Wannianshi temple/monastery. It would be the beginning of no hot showers for 3 days...
When we got there, we were told that the dining hall would be closed after 6 so we were expected to buy cup ramen and biscuits in case we had a case of late night munchies. However the food at the dining hall turned out to be inedible* so most of us had cup ramen for dinner as well. *Monastery cooks are shockingly bad even with vegetarian dishes. Not only was the meat made of tofu, the only real vegetable used was bamboo. The eggplant and taro were made of soy too!

Ways we passed time: watched monastery cat eat a "dead" koi fish, played hacky sack and card tricks, observed sneaky monks, took pictures of temples and pond turtles, laughed over shared walls and smelly toilets, and shared stories about families and boys on the steps of the temple.

Shared Expenses
cable car tickets 80Y (40Y each)
lunch 30Y
snacks 27Y
dinner at the monastery dining hall 40Y

total = 137Y approx. $20US

* Saturday, May 2, 2009