Leshan (乐山) is in city near Mount Emei in Sichuan Province, famous for its huge riverside cliff carving of the Buddha. The statue is called Dafo (大佛）in Chinese.

Get in

Get around

See

One of the main attraction to see is the Leshan Grand Buddha. The Grand Buddha is a 71 meter high sculpture carved into one of the large cliffs by the river. In addition to the Grand Buddha, there are also numerous smaller carvings of various Buddhas on the Grand Buddha Cliff Road. Other than carvings, there are also various temples and shrines scattered about, as well as some beautiful small waterfalls.

Leshan Grand Buddha

Do

There are two ways to see the giant Buddha: on foot and by river ferry.

To see the giant Buddha Statue by ferry you can take one of the ferries from the dock for 50 rmb. The ferry will cross the river and stop in front of the statue for 10 minutes for everyone to go to the top deck and take pictures and then return to the dock. The total trip will take around 40 minutes.

An alternative is take a taxi or bus to the statue and climb up and down on the cliff surrounding the Buddha.

Buy

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Get out

There are buses in the morning and afternoon to Chengdu (2 hours), frequent buses all day to Emei Shan, and a bus in the morning to Kangding. An alternative route to Kangding if you miss the morning bus is take one of the many buses during the day to Ya'an （4-5 hours) and change buses there.