Without delay, our tour guide Lisa provided us with some necessary provisions (wipes map & water) & accompanied us to our hotel. We hired a private tour for the three day stay in Chengdu so as to give us flexibility to meet up with Tom's paternal relatives for a couple of dinner get togethers.
Our sightseeing excursions took us to Leshan - giant Buddha sculpted from stone and wood that reside along the riverbank at the conjunction of three tributaries ( Ming river, Dadu river & Qingyi river). A story is told thru the ages of the monk that commissioned the construction of the Buddha to protect villagers from constant floods. He was said to have gauged out his own eye rather than pay stipends to corrupt official that reigned over the valley.
Unfortunately, the day was misty and cloudy but as in Xi'an, it was hard to tell which was more predominant, the smog or the clouds. Next we took a car ride to E-Mie Shan, and rode a lengthy bus ride followed by a short cable lift to the golden peak where the gold-gilded ten faced Buddha overlooked the entire mountain.
We toured the tomb & shrine for Emperor Liu- Bei & Zhou-ghu-liuang and had a short recap of the tales of the three kingdoms (RedCliff movie)
