I enter from the back of the area - 东方佛都景区, which was another conservation area with more temples and Buddha statues, including 卧佛，万佛词，地宫东区，米洞中坐佛和药师佛寺. Am glad I went on the tour with a proper guide and I'm happy ours was knowledgeable, not just in the area but could also share generally about Buddhist learnings and Fengshui, citing examples of how it's omnipresent in the way of life, especially here in Leshan City and in general, China. 峨眉导游走断腿，乐山导游说破嘴. Indeed so. The guide spoke non stop for a good 2 hrs, it's amazing how much he remembers and has gone thru, to be rattling off so seemingly effortlessly. There's also no lack of tourist traps here, such as photos with the Giant Buddha head and a tea break rest stop in between. A photo with the Buddha head should be taken from the right shoulder of the Buddha because the observation deck on the left is higher where you will then be 'above and looking down at Buddha' which is disrespectful. There are 5 poses here where touching a different part of the Buddha's head signifies a different blessing (top of the head for a good career, top of the ear for good health, bottom of the ear for longevity, nose for wealth. Then eyebrows and facing the Buddha directly which I can't remember for what purpose already haha). A pity I didn't get to see the whole Buddha from the leg as the path going down was closed due to falling stones resulting from heavy rain in Sep. And again a pity the next time I return (if I ever do), it'll not be the same anymore as they are now constructing a glass shield covering the statue from the front, and an elevator in the middle of it (yay).

Took a boat up and down the river for views, then walked up the statue. Worth taking the time with this monument from the Tang dynasty. It was wet and a bit slippery to walk the stairs, I wish we'd stayed longer.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is one of the must-see attractions when visiting Chengdu although it is located more than 2 hours away in the city of Leshan. Visitors have a choice of viewing the 233-ft stone carving from a built-in stairway in the mountain or riding a ferry, which is what we did. The ferry entrance is located far from the parking area but there are rickshaws that can take you there faster if you don’t want to walk. There were many local tourists on the day of our visit so the queue going to the ferry was quite long. The Giant Buddha stone carving is really huge up close, and it isn’t a surprise that it took 99 years to build. However, the once ferry passes the Buddha, it will immediately go back to the docking station to pick up more passengers so this tour was quite quick. If you come with a tour guide, he/she will be able to discuss the stone carving’s history, which is nothing short of fascinating. Very educational too, I must say.

It was the second time we came back for this attraction,as twenty years ago we cannot come to see this giant buddha due to safety concerns as it was raining and stormy What a change!! Now the head portion was all fenced off and one cannot walk onto the Buddha's head! At the same time the hike from the top to the feet was blocked off due to reconstruction. As a result we also tooked the boat tour and one can admire the buddha from a distant. We also booked for a photo shoot stop with special place reserved with excellent view of the Buddha , and the photos turned out well and the money was well spent The boat tour itself is about 45 minutes long, with the light breeze on a hot day make it relaxing. One can then appreciate the size of this stone carved monument!!

We went on a Saturday in July. Firstly, I would suggest to not travel here in the summer as it’s quite hot and humid, but if you do, make sure to arrive early like 7:30 am which is when it opens. I planned to do that but it was raining so we waited until 8:30 and arrived when the rain stopped. By then we faced many tour groups but we managed. If you bought your tickets on the official mini program you will need to exchange it into a paper ticket. You can do this in the north entrance. This was no problem and they just typed in my passport numbers to look up my ticket. There was no line and you could actually buy tickets on the spot as well. It’s important to note the north entrance is still quite a long distance from the actual Buddha statue so you need to line up for the free tram. If you don’t want to wait for the tram you will need to walk along the river for 25 minutes. I suggest the tram as you don’t want to tire yourself out before even starting the climb up. Once you get to the actual entrance there’s a line to get in but relatively quick, like 5 min wait. Then the actual walk up the stairs is about 15 min, not long and they have places you can stop and rest and three bathrooms randomly through out. Just keep following the signs to head to the buddha. After visiting the buddha head you can choose to climb down to the feet which we didn’t because my husband’s knees aren’t good. But I will include a picture so you may see the path while it’s under construction. We exited by the east gate and then took the free tram back with no wait time. Then we headed to the Jiazhou ferry port which is at the same area of the north gate and walked right into the boat without waiting. The boat ride is about 30 min and you stop for 8-10 min in front of the buddha and can take pics. It was nice to feel the breeze and the boat wasn’t crowded. I liked both experiences. We bought a combined package of climb and boat using their official mini app. We were done around 12.