30:39.23N  104:03.59E

Chengdu and Emei Shan

Our 8th April flight from Phuket via KL to Chengdu was not without it’s problems – we queued up to go through immigration for almost an hour, because we never saw the sign to the transfer lounge, too busy following the rest of the passengers!  Never mind, we caught our flight just as it was boarding, and our guide was waiting for us as planned.  The Flower hotel in the tourist street of Chengdu was not as nice as all the other hotels we’ve been staying in, but well placed for great Chinese souvenirs and antiques to delight our curiosity.   The early morning start to the Panda reserve greeted us with wonderful sunny weather, (we’d arrived in the freezing rain), and gardens full of azaleas, cherry blossom and spring flowers

Oh yes, and lots of baby pandas romping around together, and many red pandas waiting to be fed!

It’s funny we’re all dressed in black & white like pandas!

The Giant Buddha carved out of the red rock in Leishan was built where one of the tributaries of the Ming river rushes in, flooding used to be common, but when they cleared the rock debris left over from carving this giant from the river, the flooding miraculously stopped!

We’d just missed the Spring festival in Leishan, but at least we could enjoy the decorations whilst shopping for some warm trecking trousers for Christine!

The market sellers still bring their produce in traditional pole baskets.

Early morning start to the Emei mountain, via a long 2 hour bus ride and then cable car had us all wrapped up in our warmest clothes half way up the mountain, the temperature must have been around 1 C!

We are at the spot marked on the map below by the end of the walking stick, at cloud level!

The sun burst through at the top, and we felt as if we were flying above the clouds whilst visiting the Buddha of many faces and the golden temple, all recenbtly built in 2006.  Its a huge complex, the hotel is very good, all the flooring is made of granite and marble, brought up by donkeys!

Bunty and I saw the 6.50 sunrise, poor Christine was suffering from altitude sickness by then as we were at 3,200 Metres.

Walking down past the monkeys was a bit of a challenge, they are huge and very aggressive to the tourists, not surprising I suppose, with so many of them invading their territory!

Christine’s happy face on the way down in the cable car shows how quick her recovery was, that’s our guide next to her, Winnie, not great at smiling, but very helpful.  We  walked part of the way down, through the local tea farming villages.  Many beautiful houses were under construction, the people here use them as their Holiday homes, earning more money in the big towns.

Window shopping in Chengdu Tourist street, and the classic Tea House Chinese opera finished off

the day