There are some days of my job that I really look forward to and that don’t disappoint. The day I got to visit the Leshan Buddha in China’s Sichuan Province was one of those days.
The Leshan Giant Buddha is a 233-foot-tall sculpture carved from a stone cliff at the confluence of China’s Min and Dadu Rivers. Construction of this massive figure began in the year 713 and was completed in 803. According to Wikipedia, “It is the largest and tallest stone Buddha statue in the world and it is by far the tallest pre-modern statue in the world.” Pretty amazing.
The city of Leshan, China.
I was on a scouting trip for an upcoming SATW convention when I found out that the Buddha would be on my itinerary. It would be a quick stop, but I was determined to make the most of it. The trip was designed to squeeze a lot into a few days as we scouted potential tours for a convention the following year, so I didn’t really have the ability to tailor the schedule to my own needs — I’d just have to take what I could get. Fingers were crossed for good weather.
The day started with a visit to a Panda research facility, then we drove from Chengdu to Leshan, where we enjoyed one of the best meals I’ve had in China at a small restaurant overlooking the river.
Lunch in Leshan. One of the best I've had. I still dream about those sweet rolls, third from the left.
After lunch, we made our way down the street to the dock where a double-decker tourist boat would take us down the river to see the giant Buddha. Always good to get on a boat after a big meal, right? I didn’t really care, I was ready for the Buddha.
For those interested in my photo gear, I just took two bodies on the boat. It would be tight quarters and I wanted to be at the rail, so I didn’t really want to be trying to change lenses and risk a drop into the river. I took a Nikon D700 with a 17-35mm lens to cover the wide end, and a Nikon D7000 with a Tamron 16-300mm zoom to cover anything else I might need.
Looking back at Leshan after leaving the dock.
And, before you knew it, there he was — the giant Buddha gazing out over the river as he’d been doing for over a thousand years. The boat took us quickly past at first, then turned and came back upstream closer to the cliff where they could pause for a few minutes to let those of us on the boat get photos. In this first photo, you can see some of the other boats idling in the river as we made our first pass downstream.
Tourist boats, like the one I'm on, pausing in front of the Buddha to allow for photos.
As you can see from the photos, there is a way to get to the Buddha by ground transportation. Then, as I understand it, you can take a long loop trail behind the Buddha’s head and down the cliff stairs. If I can ever manage to get back to Leshan, I would love to do this full tour. Unfortunately, there would not be time on this trip, and I would have to be happy with the mere 20 minutes I spent on the boat.
One more camera note: I was very happy to have the 17mm lens on my full-frame camera body. The Buddha is BIG, and the boats are fairly close to it. The telephoto shots are great to have, too, but if you want to see the statue’s relationship to the river, you’ll probably need a 24mm lens at the least. Unless your boat captain parks you a little further out.
All-in-all, 20-ish really well spent minutes that I would gladly repeat.
