Short notes from a weekend.

Elle’s school was on holiday for Good Friday and Art doesn’t teach on Fridays, so we woke early and got out of town for Easter weekend to continue celebrating Art’s 65th birthday. Destination: Leshan, Emeishan, and comfy hotel beds.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is part of the Mount Emei UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s more than 1200 years old, and sits 230 feet high… carved into the side of a cliff. Mount Emei (Emeishan) is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains, with many temples and monestaries on and around it, including the Golden Peak at its top, and Dafo Temple (the Great Buddha Temple) in the town. The mountain itself is lush and wet, smokey. Mysterious. With winding wet paths and stairs made of thick dark stone, and cable cars for quick ascents. For multiple reasons, including trepidation, we did not make it to the Golden Peak (where, we heard from a German couple, there was quite a snowpack plus dense fog).

We had little knowledge of these places beforehand, but it seemed like a good weekend plan. And it was. Aside from the rain, and a strange and stomach-lurching ride halfway up the mountain in a crowded old bus, it all worked out great. Art and I would actually go back again (Elle has no interest) to truly tackle Mount Emei, which requires at least two dedicated full days: one to trek up to the top of the mountain, and the other to get back down.

Both cities are accessible via high speed trains out of Chengdu. These trains make me weep for the U.S. and our inability to get it together, infra-structurally and politically, to bring our train travel game up to par with the rest of the modern world. It really is such a nice way to travel.

Tiny little customer service windows at the station are weird, but everything else is first rate. I’d booked us into business class because first class was sold out, and I wasn’t sure we’d get seats together in second class, plus business class tickets were just $23 each, plus birthday celebration, so why not.

Elle is, seriously, a very helpful travel companion. She’s observant, and quick, and often figures things out before we do. Handy!

We ended up having the entire business class capsule (five seats) to ourselves.

Cute snack boxes on these trains, just like in Europe, but with spicy bamboo shoots and fragrant rice chips in place of the Haribo gummi bears.

A very quiet and smooth (thanks to maglev trains) 90-minute ride to Emeishan City.

This is what you see out the window (Yes, blurry. Because 195 km/hour. And gray. Because rain. And because China.). Sichuan is one well-planted province (with over 80 million people to feed in this province alone), and those bright yellow flowering crops? Rapeseed.

Like any train ride through the countryside, it’s frequently breathtaking, but impossible to fully capture…

And the rapeseed is just vibrant. See this: http://mashable.com/2016/03/23/rapeseed-royal-robe/#WnyxozVq95qs

After checking in at the Anantara we cabbed over to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha. Wires were crossed and we miscommunicated. This can happen. We ended up on a boat, viewing the Buddha from the water with an enthusiastic group of Chinese tourists, and not ever actually getting over to the climb the steps burrowed into the cliff around Buddha. The boat viewing, however, turned out to be just exactly enough for us. If we decide we can’t live without climbing those steps, it’s easy enough to get back to Leshan on a future Saturday.

While we waited to “sail” to the Buddha, we spied a sweet kitten on the next boat over. Go figure. I’m becoming a cat person. This makes Elle happy.

This is the Min Jiang (or, Min River) looking surprisingly similar (albeit murkier) to the Monongahela in Homestead, PA.

There it is, just behind/above Art’s head.

Afterward, we spent several very quiet hours exploring the Dafo Temple of Mount Emei.

This temple is ancient, stoic… lovingly well kept. In fact, there were so many pots of miracle-grow-bright new flowers lined up everywhere, and everything had been swept so spotless, that I think it was being readied for an event. Though we found it eerily quiet on the day we were there. Aside from a few people in the entryway shops, and a few others scattered here and there, we felt nearly alone in the place. It took us two hours to walk from one end to the other. Mostly in silence. Finally found a few tour groups at the end.

Mount Emei is the home of the Bodhisattva of Universal Benevolence (or Universal Virtue). He is often seen with an elephant… and was one who “practiced what he preached”… with ten vows for leading a virtuous life.

Elle loves these sugar art creations on sticks (think hot honey dripped into shapes, then hardened). Public spaces everywhere in China (including temples) have them, so a “regular” thing for her…

A new Bodhisattva prayer bead bracelet on his wrist.

To be continued…