Scenic Places in Sichuan

There are many scenic and historic attractions in Sichuan, a province located in southwestern China. We left Chengdu, its capital, on our way south to Yunnan Province, and stopped off at a couple of places along the way.

The first place was a town called Leshan. Its major attraction is the huge stone-carved Buddha that towers majestically over the confluence of two big rivers, the Min He and Dadu He. They claim it's the largest Buddha in the world. Our arrival coincidentally coincided with Da Fo Ji (Big Buddha Festival) and the grand Buddha was decked out in ribbons. This mid-size town was swollen with visitors who were taking part in festivities. As night fell, thousands of light filled paper lotus were released into the river.

The best part of Leshan was the people. They were very friendly and treated us with the typical curiosity toward foreigners but also with manners that they would use with their neighbors. This town has a gentle kindness among its people.

Emi Shan, our next stop, is famous for its beauty of forested mountains, waterfalls and ravines. It has been registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its tallest peak reaches over 10,000 feet, and its mysterious environment, shrouded in fog, is said to have been inhabited by hermits with unworldly knowledge and power. Emi Shan is dotted with several Buddhist temples and is one of the four holy mountains in China. The air is fresh and thick. Water is pristine and its flow sounds powerful and refreshing. So many colorful butterflies of various kinds fly about everywhere. And the vegetations on the mountain seem to hold everything together.

Despite the beauty and spiritual undertones of Emi Shan, we had a hard time appreciating its gifts as bus load after bus load of Chinese tour groups dutifully filed through each of the scenic spots. Thanks to the paved roads and cable cars that connect the major sites, it doesn't take much effort to be able to appreciate them.

Here in China, one must venture off the tourists' paths, in order to experience views and quiet moments at "famous scenic and historic sites of interest". It requires stretching your paths to places without much transportations or that take physical effort to reach. At Emi Shan, this means climbing up and down literally thousands of stone steps on the sides of the mountains for several hours. Once off the main path, though, the mountain showed us her true beauty.

It has been interesting to observe the budding tourism industry here in China, from Beijing to Tibet and now the southwestern corner of the country. To me, China has some of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, for their nature, histories and mystic impressions. On the other hand, every country in the world has it's own famous tourist destinations that have been overly developed and commercialized. That seems to be the case with many places in China and unfortunately the true beauty is shaved away by excessive development.