Leshan is a little town outside Chengdu where we ate a lot of chilli and got to see an incredible state of Buddha. The statue is 71M tall and nestled on the side of a cliff overlooking the water in Sichuan province and is the largest stone buddha in the world.  It’s an easy walk/hike to get to the top and a very long long crawl down the side of the cliff to the get to the bottom.

Construction was started in 713, led by a Chinese monk named Haitong. He hoped that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters that plagued the shipping vessels traveling down the river. When funding for the project was threatened, he is said to have gouged out his own eyes to show his piety and sincerity. After his death, however, the construction was stuck due to insufficient funding. About 70 years later, a jiedushi decided to sponsor the project and the construction was completed by Haitong’s disciples in 803. Thank you Wikipedia.

And then of course we had to eat!