Thank you so much for the awesome service today! Steven Zhang and the driver, Mr Liu, were great for our trip to Chengdu. Steven was on the platform exactly where we stepped off of the train, and he did a great job as our local guide in Chengdu. The van for the tour was clean and in good condition. Everything was as good as possible. We are so glad we went to Chengdu for the cute giant panda. That was the most wonderful part of the trip. The guide, Steven I think, was the very best. If I have a chance to visit China again, I will use your services again and I also will recommend to all my friends. I'm hoping the coach tours will be a great experience as well.
Thanks again,
Jack Benzel
As the largest stone sculpture of Buddha in the world, Leshan Big Buddha is situated at the Lingyun Mountain where the Minjiang and Dadu River meet, east of Leshan City. Cut in the Tang Dyansty, it is a sitting stone statue of Maitreya Buddha, famous for “the Buddha is a mountain, and the mountain is a Buddha”. As high as 71 meters, it has a 14.7 – meter- head, 7-meter-long ears, 3.3-meter-long eye, and 24-meter-wide shoulders and its shoulders are so huge that more than 100 persons can sit over there. It is even 18 meters higher than Bamiyang Big Buddha in Afghanistan (53 meters high) that was once regarded as the largest in the world, so Leshan Big Buddha is the biggest stone stature in the world at present.
Historical documents show that the carving of the Leshan Dafo was begun in AD 713. According to legend, there was a river monster that lived on the confluence of the rivers. The monster often caused floods that capsized passing boats. Believing that the statue would protect boats travelling up the river, Master Haitong, a Buddhist abbot of the Lingyun Monastery, initiated the project by raising the necessary funds.
