Traveling with a pretty girl in Chengdu and Leshan

Written by Apr 12, 2012 22:17

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To be frank, I never thought that I could have a four-day trip with a pretty girl in Sichuan. My friend K told me that he had a German friend who planned to visit China soon. He asked me whether I had time to accompany her to finish her trip. Why me? “I do not have time. But you have enough time. Besides, you are very fond of traveling. I am pretty sure that you can do it. ”, said he.

That’s why my four-day Sichuan trip started.

First destination---Chengdu

Laura told me that her biggest wish was to see the pandas. Thus, we came to Chengdu to make her wish come true. Why did we choose Chengdu? Chengdu has a Panda Base where we can see many cute pandas.

Panda Base

Unfortunately, our first day in Chengdu really sucks. It was raining when I arrived at Chengdu Railway Station. Laura and I hoped that the rain could stop immediately. But we were wrong. It kept raining when we arrived at the Panda Base. Laura was disappointed, saying repeatedly “It’s unfair!”

It was indeed unfair because all pandas were at their houses. Besides, most of them were sleepy. Laura said she wanted to leave. I didn’t want to let her down. So I asked a guide at the Panda Base. She told us that there were a few more panda houses. Thus, I asked Laura to visit these panda houses. Eventually, we saw two lovely pandas eating bamboo at their house. One panda lay on the ground and then put bamboo into its mouth. He was too lazy.

Thanks to these two pandas, Laura smiled again. We came out of the Panda Base at 18:00 and then headed back to our hotel directly. After taking a shower, we came out to have dinner and then came back again.

The first day in Chengdu was disappointing. We originally planned to visit Giant Buddha at Mt. Leshan. Thanks to the heavy rain, we had no choice but changed our plan. We decided to see some attractions in the downtown area of Chengdu.

The second destination---Leshan Mountain

It was 09:30 when I opened my eyes. I noticed that the rain stopped. Can we go to see Giant Buddha today? Though we decided to stay in Chengdu last night, I still wanted to visit Giant Buddha. Thus, I called my friend to confirm the weather condition in Leshan City. Luckily, my friend told me that we could go there.

I told Laura about this via a text message. She was very happy and got up immediately. Thus, we changed our plan again. We came to Xinnanmen Bus Station at 11:00 and then took a long distance bus to Leshan. Two hours later, we came to Leshan and then took the public bus to Giant Buddha. It took us about 20 minutes.

The entrance ticket to Giant Buddha was expensive. It cost us CNY 180 for two persons. But it was worth coming here. I was shocked when we arrived at the foot of the Giant Buddha. How did ancient Chinese people sculpt this Buddha? It was amazing!

Giant Buddha

Giant Buddha 2

In fact, we could take a boat to visit the Giant Buddha. But we didn’t have enough time. When we board on the bus, it started to rain. How lucky we were!

It was dark when we got back to Chengdu. Laura and I felt very hungry and tired. So we didn’t go to see any other attractions. Instead, we had a dinner together and then went back to our hotel.

Next morning, we boarded the train from Chengdu to Xian. Thanks to the rain, the train was late for almost an hour. But we finally got on the train. Someone told me that a carriage of a train fell into the river when we arrived at Chengdu. How terrible it was! Anyway, we came back to Xian safely.

When the train arrived at Xian Railway Station, I realized that it’s time to say goodbye to Laura. She was to take flight back to Germany in the afternoon. I promised to see her off. Before she entered the check-in gate, she told me that she had a nice trip in Chengdu and Leshan and thanked for my hospitality. Actually, it wasn’t a nice trip because of the rain.