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Leshan, called Jiazhou in ancient time, is located in the southwest of Sichuan Basin, central Sichuan Province and south of Chengdu City with about 2 hours’ driving distance. Sitting in the confluence of Ming River, Qingyi River and Dadu River, Leshan is a historical and cultural city in China and a very popular side trip destination nearby Chengdu with three World Heritages and lots of national spots, "A City of Landscape" indeed. Historical sites are perfectly blended into the beautiful scenery. Chosen as the “Most Desirable Attraction in China”, Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha have drawn numerous tourists with its unique glamour and cultural ambient. Besides the two World Heritage Sites, there are other highlights in Leshan, like Dongfeng Irrigation Tank Truck, Luocheng Ancient Town, Jiayang Steam Train, Black Bamboo Valley, Jiajiang Thousand-Buddha Cliff, etc. Various kinds of delicious food and local snacks are another must-try highlights for a Leshan tour.
Emeishan city, situated at the edge of Southwest Sichuan Basin, 190 km from Chengdu downtown, is an ancient city with rich culture and long history of more than 1,400 years. And it is named for its world famous Mount Emei within. Mount Emei is one of the “Four Great Buddhist Mountains in China” for its profound Buddhist culture. In 1996, it was listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO for both cultural and natural heritages. Since it is abundant with rare plants and precious animals, such as monkeys, and also enjoys eye-catching sightseeing view, like the Sunrise, Cloud Sea, Light of Buddha, etc., Mount Emei is reputed as “vegetable kingdom”, “animal paradise” and “National AAAA Scenic Area”. Since long ago, Emeishan has attracted numerous visitors to enjoy the beautiful landscape in this tourist city.
Leshan Giant Buddha - As the world largest cliff rock carved Maitreya Buddha statue in the world, and a notable UNESCO Natural & Cultural Heritage, the 71-m-tall Leshan Giant Buddha is boasting for its magnificent carving skill and stunning natural scenery around it.
Various Delicious Local Food - People always says “eating in Sichuan, tasting in Leshan”. Leshan has numerous featured foods, like Bobo Chicken, Jellied Bean Curd, Qiaojiao Beef, Malatang, Xiba Tofu, Leshan Barbecue, etc. It’s a great destination for foodies.
Rich Buddhist Culture. As a world renowned Buddhist mountain, Mount Emei in Emeishan is rich in Buddhist culture with numerous Buddhist temples along the way to the peak as well as groups of Buddhist monks living here.
Peculiar Natural Scenery. Since Mount Emei is more than 3,000 m above the sea, a lot of breathtaking scenery can be enjoyed here, like the Sunrise, Cloud Sea, Light of Buddha, red leaves, azaleas, and so on.
Paradise of Rare Animals. Various types of animals live in Emeishan for the fertile environment, and among them, the monkeys here in Mount Emei are especially very adorable and intelligent.
Leshan is a historical and cultural city, and it’s a city of two World Heritage Sites. Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Emei are the most famous attractions when speaking of Leshan. Except the two heavyweight legacy, travelers with more time can go to other natural and cultural spots in Leshan to harvest more culture and history of Leshan.
Leshan Giant Buddha: Initiated by a affectinate monk, the Buddha was caved on mountain cliff from ancient Tang Dynasty to suppress floods. Now this 71-m-tall Buddha statue artful design is a valuable cultural site and the landmark of Leshan City.
Oriental Buddha Capital: Located next to Leshan Giant Buddha, it is a huge Buddhist cultural park with over thousands of Buddhist sculptures, including a 170-m-long giant sleeping Buddha, underground palace with massive stone statues, a big garden...
Guo Moruo Former Residence: Here is where the great writer was born and lived as a teenager. Seeing the original houses helps you know his childhood, background of growth and even impact on his early poems.
Thousand-Buddha Cliff: On the riverside cliff, Jiayang, nearly 2,500 Buddhist statues were caved on the caves, which are constructed from Sui Dynasty by the civilians, so older and more richer in content than Leshan Giant Buddha.
Take A Boat Ride or Hiking to See Leshan Giant Buddha A boat tour offers a best front and panoramic view of the Buddha in a leisure pace, while the hiking takes longer, but more fun to hike zigzag stairs to closely see the head, eye, feet of the Giant Buddha.
Taste Local Food & Snacks: Leshan is a paradise of dainty snacks. The wild variety of street food and snacks is cheap but very delicious and local featured, enough to ease your tiredness and deepen your impression of Leshan people and food culture.
Experience Jiayang Steam Train Travel: The coal-burning steam train is a living fossil of the Industrial Revolution passing lovely countryside. Make a traditional train tour to travel back to old times and make comparison with the modern high speed bullet trains.
Watch Unique Mount Emei Show: Made premiere in September 2019, Unique Mount Emei is a new work of Wang Chaoge. In 6 chapters, the show combine indoor and outdoor performance with local story, landscape and folklore. Ready to be impressed by the visual feast, vivid stage and story.
Enjoy Night Cruise Tour on Rivers: When night falls, colorful lights turns Leshan a still lively place. Take a relaxing night cruise to see dazzling light shows tell ancient story of Leshan, Leshan Giant Buddha and seize a different Buddha image in the dark evening.
As a sacred Buddhist mountain for more than 1,400 years, there are a series of charming attractions in Emeishan for tourists to discover. In Mount Emei, the Golden Summit, Wannian Temple, Qingyin Pavilion, and Baoguo Temple are the most special spots that you should not miss.
Golden Summit The Golden Summit is the essence of Mount Emei for it enjoys the exquisite giant gold statue of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, which is 48 m high and designed with delicate patterns. As the highest peak of the mountain, it is the best place to appreciate the rare scenery, namely, the Sunrise, Sunset, Cloud Sea, Light of Buddha, etc.
Baoguo Temple is not only the start of Mount Emei tour, but also, it performs as the important place for holding Buddhist activities in Mount Emei. Visitors can feel its grand and solemn features with towering trees covering, magnificent temples, vivid animal statues, circling incense, crispy chime, etc.
Wannian Temple is 15 km upper from Baoguo Temple and it is also the largest temple in Mount Emei for its many Buddhist buildings, gardens, pavilions, pools, etc. moreover, the three treasures in Mount Emei are collected in this temple, namely, the tooth relic of the Buddha, palm-leaf manuscript, and the imperial seal.
Qingyin Pavilion is particular at its eye-pleasing natural sightseeing with singing ravines, dancing fragrant blossoms, echoing water, and so on. Though this pavilion is not very large, its elegant scenery that is like a Chinese brush painting due to the precipitous topography is the symbol of the beauty of Mount Emei.
Visiting Mount Emei in Emeishan, tourists can have fun in various kinds of interesting activities, among which the most special are the hiking, pilgrimage, photography, hot spring, skiing, monkeys watching, azalea seeing, etc. Check the following to see more detail information.
Hiking: Mount Emei is a really good place to take a hike, since it has steep terrain and a high altitude of more than 3,000 thousand meters. Long steps, paths covered with snow, and stone way in the water, etc. spread along the way up to the Golden Summit, so you can explore the harshness of Mount Emei.
Pilgrimage: Since Mount Emei is a sacred Buddhist mountain all over the world, continuous groups of Buddhist believers come here to experience the rich Buddhist culture and purify their mind. Numerous Buddhist temples, solemn chime sound, and curling up incense will be the best catalyst in your pilgrimage.
Photography: Due to the high altitude, Mount Emei has long become a great place for photography-likers to capture a series of beautiful images, like the azalea blossoms, red leaves, snow covering trees, night sky filled with stars, Cloud Sea, sunrise, Buddha statues, ancient temples, lush forests and clear ravines and falls, etc.
Hot Spring: Enjoy the hot spring in Mount Emei that is the best in Sichuan province after your visit here is really relaxing and unforgettable. Since it belongs to the rare radon hot spring that is both healthy for the skin and can drive away many diseases, the hot spring here is very popular among visitors.
Skiing: This ski resort is built at the right of Leidongping parking lot, covering a very wide area of 10,000 square meters. It also is an especially standard ski resort with ski slopes of different kinds and professional coaches, so skiers from beginner to advanced level can totally have a good time at this white wonderland.
Monkeys Watching The monkeys in Mount Emei represent the vigor of this mountain attraction. Nearly every tourist comes to Mount Emei chooses to watch the monkey and photograph with them here for they are adorable and intelligent, the best place to watch the monkeys are Qingyin Pavilion, between Yixiantian and Hongchunping.
Azalea Seeing: The azalea flowers are the special sightseeing in Mount Emei. From middle April to June every year, the sea of azalea of nearly 30 types of more than 100 li is in full bloom, painting the mountain into red, white, purple, yellow and pink. You will not only be amazed by its large scale but drunk into its fragrance as well.
Leshan City is featured in central subtropical climate. It has four distinctive seasons and the average temperature is between 16.5℃ to 18℃. Affected by the monsoon climate, the weather is humid and there is abundant rainfall all year round. Most districts have average rainfall over 1000 millimeters, while the average rainfall for Emeishan is over 1500 millimeters. It rains frequently in hot Summer during June to August.
The best time to visit Leshan is March to May in spring and September to November in autumn. During these times, the weather in Leshan is very comfortable and cozy. Spring is a season of flowers, both Giant Buddha and Mount Emei is surrounded by a sea of bright flowers. Summer is a good time to visit Mount Emei to escape the summer heat. Autumn is a season of red leaves on the mountain, when temperature is cool and air is clear. Winter is cold on Mount Emei with thick ice and snow, but tourists can ski and take a hot spring bath on Mount Emei, and the snow scenery on the mountain top is gorgeous.
Emeishan belongs to the subtropical monsoon climate area. Since Mount Emei has a high altitude, it shows different weather according to the height. 1500-2100 m belongs to the warm temperature zone, 2100-2500 m the middle temperature zone, above 2500 m the subfrigid zone. And there is about half a year for snow covering above 2000 meters, from Oct. to the next Apr. Mount Emei shows cloud and mists for most time, with a little sunshine and rich rainfall. Having a moderate climate, its annually average temperature is 17℃, with the highest of 39℃ and the lowest of 4.6℃ below zero. And it has an average annual precipitation of 1033.9 millimeters.
It is recommended to visit Mount Emei in spring and the fall, since the temperature is moderate and the azalea blossoms from April to May and the best month to enjoy the red leaves is October.
How to Get to Leshan
Most travelers like to travel to Leshan from Chengdu or Emeishan by train or bus, because currently, there is no airport located in Leshan City. Tourists can take high speed train from railway station in downtown Chengdu, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to Leshan (about 1 hour), and then transfer to Leshan Giant Buddha and other scenic spots. Long-distance bus to Leshan departs from Xinnanmen Bus Station, Chadianzi Bus Station for about 2.5-3 hours. If you plan to get to Leshan from Emeishan, there are also fast and convenient high speed trains (about 15 minutes) and direct tourist bus, intercity public bus (Bus No.601) available. Make sure your book train tickets in advance since it’s very popular during weekends, holidays and festivals. Otherwise, get a bus is a nice Plan B.
How to Get around Leshan
Emeishan is a country-level city within the administrative jurisdiction of Leshan City. Compared to Chengdu, Leshan City is not big, so tourists can take public bus, taxi to get around easily, if language communication and sense of direction is good.
Travel with China Discovery, you can enjoy worry-fee private transfer to Leshan Giant Buddha from Chengdu, Mount Emei, and visit surrounding sites in Leshan, such as Jiayang Steam Train in Qianwei, etc.
By Flight
There is no airport in Emeishan city till now. There are two large international airports near this city for you choice. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport about 280 km away has opened more than 70 international airlines and Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport about 270 km away has opened 58 airlines to and from Europe, American, Australia, and Asia…
By Train
Since the completion of the Chengdu-Mianyang-Leshan Intercity Railway, the transportation from Chengdu to Emeishan has changed a lot. Visitors can take a bullet train from Chengdu downtown or Shuangliu International Airport passing this railway for only 1 to 1.5 hours to get to the scenic area.
Moreover, there are 4 trains every day running from Chengdu North Railway Station to Emei Railway Station, which needs 2 to 3 hours to arrive.
By Coach
Choose to take a long-distance coach to Emeishan is also very convenient. You can buy a ticket at Xinnanmen Bus Station at Chengdu downtown to Emeishan Tour Passenger Transport Center, costing about 2 hours. The buses start about every 20 minutes before 19:00 every day.
Getting Around
In Emeishan city, taking a regular bus or a taxi to travel is very convenient and cheap. You can also find many long-distance buses to other cities like Ya'an, Leshan, Yibin, Mianyang, Chengdu, Chongqing etc.
To help you to know more about Leshan attractions, plan a Leshan Emeishan Tour well, we have selected some useful Leshan maps for you. Please feel free to download and use them.
We have selected some very useful maps of Mount Emei to help you visiting this attractive place. Please feel free to use if you want to know the location and other information while in Mount Emei!
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