China Explorer Day 6

After a short flight we arrived in Chengdu. We travelled a couple of hours to Leshan and enjoyed a spicy Sichuan lunch before making our way by boat to view the Grand Buddha Statue.

This enormous 230 ft statue is carved into the red sandstone face of Lingyun Hill and faces the confluence of three rivers, the Min,Dadu and Qingyi. It was constructed in AD 713 by a monk called Haitong. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After returning to Chengdu, we sampled one of the city's many tea houses prior to taking in a Sichuan Opera. This was excellent, with a blend of singing, acrobats, comedy and the truly amazing face-changing. The performer uses swift hand movements to add or remove a face mask - by swift I mean in a blink of a eye!