Du Fu, Thousand Buddha Cliffs, Hot Springs

I woke up cold this morning, packed up, grabbed some chips ahoy from the small convenience store across the street, and got on the bus. The first stop today was Du Fu’s cottage. Du Fu is a famous Tang Dynasty (circa 800AD) poet. His cottage, the place where he supposedly got inspiration for his work, has since been expanded into a larger garden complex. The cottage itself is gone, of course, but there’s an exact replica on the site. Yes, Du Fu’s real cottage did have a gift shop inside. It’s an exact replica. Anyway, we looked around for a bit and got back on the bus to head to the thousand-buddha cliffs.

On the way to the cliffs, we stopped at an extremely large and extremely empty tourist rest stop. Apparently tourism in Sichuan isn’t so busy this time of year. As we ate in the cavernous, un-heated building, it wasn’t hard to see why. The staff did seem grateful for our visit, though. We could tell they must have been a little bored before we got there, as they waited on us hand and foot. The building was cold, but the food was hot, spicy, and delicious. I continued eating for ten minutes after everybody else had finished.

The thousand-buddha cliffs were not extremely spectacular, but I loved it anyway. So far, most of the sites we’ve been to on this trip have been everything that Shanghai is not: peaceful, quiet, scenic, charming, uncrowded, clean, refreshing… I guess it’s the difference between city and country. Ever since I arrived in Shanghai, I’ve been craving a place with fresh air and the rest of the aforementioned qualities, so when I get the chance to hike around and explore the stone steps on the cliffs, I was in heaven. Scattered along the cliff sides are various Buddha carvings (of which there are 1000, I imagine). Although the concept is cool, this type of stuff has never really sparked my interest, so I just enjoyed the hike. It was still overcast today, but the fog lifted, so there were some decent views of the countryside at the foot of the cliffs. The scene was as I had always imagined China to be like before I went to Shanghai. Steep, green mountains drop down into a river valley where peasants work on terraces and in fields. The houses have clay shingles, and people ride bikes slowly along bumpy roads.

After dinner, Nora, Alice, and I checked out the “hot springs” at the hotel. They were a series of hot tubs and heated pools, around 10 in all, each held at a different temperature. One was kept really cold, so I used it as an ice bath to ease my sore legs before returning back to the hot one to warm back up. I just got back from the hot springs and I feel like a million bucks.