The Giant Buddha Torii, it's the main gate into the Buddha Cultural Park and the entrance to the Leshan Giant Buddha!

I first heard/saw about the Leshan Giant Buddha in a BBC documentary, Adventures In Architecture with Dan Cruickshank, and in that they film this same shot from the boat ~ the giant hand hiding the bigger picture that is...

Leshan Giant Buddha! this is the largest stone Buddha in the world at 233 feet! (and taking this photo on a rocking, sea splashing boat was no mean feat!)

Once you've climbed up the stairs to the top of this cliff your rewarded with an incredible sight ~ just check out the size of the ears!

As you can see the stone that Buddha is carved out of is degrading from weathering, air pollution, and swarms of tourists (this part of the cliff was not connected to the actual Buddha himself and I think it's considered lucky to stick your fingers in!)

Walking down the cliff face you can get some great shots of the Giant Budda, the moss seems to add to the tranquility of the place

Took this one to show the size of a toe ~ his smallest toenail is large enough to easily accommodate a seated person!

As you can see in this shot there are the winding stairs that take you down to the bottom of the Buddha, takes about 40 mins to get down them due to the queues of people

This is one of my favourite shots of the Buddha ~ I like how small the people look in comparison to him on the other side!

Some colourful incense sticks outside the temple behind the Buddha

A laughing Buddha in the Buddha Cultural Park

This was the view just outside my door at my hotel in Chengdu, Wenjun Mansion, the place it's situated in Qintai Road which has some amazing old style Chinese buildings

Like the way these old tea pots were lined up in the hotels front courtyard

Bronze Chariot and Horse statue in Qintai Roa

One of the entrances to Qintai Road ~ great pagoda design!

Kuanxiangzi Alley dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD), full of interesting souvenir shops, teahouses & food stalls

A very tranquil courtyard in the back of a souvenir shop ~ check out the big green leaves and the koi

This spectacular elephants head sculpture was also in the above courtyard, cool eh?

Girl playing the Guzheng, a Traditional Chinese String Instrument, Chengdu from Mark Carnaby on Vimeo.

Girl playing the Guzheng, a Traditional Chinese String Instrument

I had one of these drinks, all natural fruit blended together which was pretty tasty but really I brought it for the crazy bottle!

These were a tasty snack as well, bit like really thick cut crisps but a whole lot fresher and with paprika sprinkled over them

Women practicing her pouring of tea for the tea ceremony ~ notice the calculator on the table there, these tea ceremonies can end up being quite expensive!

Yes, 'No Leaning', no slouching over here...

China 2014: Part Seven of Eleven

The Chinese Adventure: Chengdu – Part One

Liked the photos?

Upon arriving at my accommodation in Chengdu, I enquired about the weather conditions as it was pretty smoggy outside and I wanted to see the Leshan Giant Buddha on the clearest day I had here, at reception they told me that this was gonna be the best day so without even checking in I was off on a two hour coach ride to Leshan to see this extraordinary sight that I’ve dreamt about for the last 6 months ~ and after seeing the Buddha in all his glory I was not disappointed! The Wenjun Mansion, the hotel I was staying in, and in fact all the other buildings in the same street were spectacular structures to see and appreciate coming from an ancient time, this theme also carried on with the Kuanxiangzi Alley just around the corner which dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 AD).

More photos in my blog post I made whilst travelling in China