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Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

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By jpetey75
December 20th 2009

Back to Chengdu Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu

Happy Mountain Big Buddha

The next morning we took a cab back to the hotel and told people our epic story at breakfast. After breakfast we got on the bus to go to the Happy Mountain giant Buddha. We heard it was on a mountain so we were worried because we only had a couple hours of sleep. We got there and it turned out that it was only about ten minutes to the top. The giant Buddha was, as you would expect, GIANT. Nothing too exciting happened there, but definitely check out the pictures of the biggest Buddha in the world. After Buddha we [View Full Entry]

By jpetey75
December 18th 2009

Chengdu and Happy Mountain Asia » China » Sichuan

Panda Disney World!

Our flight to Chengdu was delayed so for some reason we had to split into different flights. The first half had to run to the gate and we were in charge of checking their luggage on the next flight. We ended up having to move to a different terminal with all of the extra luggage, which was a pain. Then after checking in we also had to run to our gate because of all the time we spent moving and checking in. It was a stressful, but funny experience and everyone eventually made it to Chengdu, so it was overall [View Full Entry]

By tye zai zhongguo
December 15th 2009

Big Buddhas Asia » China » Sichuan » Leshan

Hello all, Nothing new to report other than that I went to LeShan last week with a friend to see the largest Buddha effigy on the planet last weekend. Read more here! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshan_Giant_Buddha My thoughts aren't very collected at the moment, so I don't have much to say other than we met some fascinating people, saw some temples more personally inspiring than the main attraction, and that the Big Buddha was, despite the tourists, numinous. See more here! http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm93/sterlingsin/Chengdu2009/LeShan/ Actually, you know what? Let's [View Full Entry]

By lihaugodden
December 3rd 2009

乐山－ Leshan Asia » China » Sichuan » Leshan

Leshan giant buddha

We went to Leshan on a side trip within our Chengdu trip to go and visit the biggest buddha in the world. We got to our hotel early in the evening. Leshan was refreshing because our hotel overlooked a small river. I didn't realize how much I missed moving, running, natural water until I saw that river. In the morning, we went to visit 乐山大 (the big buddha). It was a short hike up from the entrance to the head of the buddha. Then we hiked down to its feet on a narrow staircase, and back up on another. It was [View Full Entry]

By tye zai zhongguo
November 25th 2009

Too-belated update Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu

My semi-esteemed photo

Hey All, I haven't written an entry here in so long, I don't even remember where I left off last time. I just returned from my History class, which was held outside today at an open-air tea house where we talked freely about history and current politics in China with two old, well-learned professors, enjoying what may be the last good day to sit outside drinking Jasmine tea this winter. The weather turned bitter cold overnight a week and a half ago, dropping from about 15 C to 2-3 C. We even had snow for one minute one night, and snow [View Full Entry]

By SpottyChameleon
November 22nd 2009

Ni3 chi1 le ma?--Have you eaten? Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu

01--baozi

Not only is this sentence conveniently short and straight to the point but it is dual purpose: you can use it as a common greeting (like asking "how are you?" in the U.S. when you don't really expect a real or detailed answer). The numbers indicate the tones used since unfortunately my computer lacks capability to write them. Anyways, this particular entry is meant to detail some of the food I have encountered here so far. Though many of the pictures are not good quality (taken inside under low light without a flash), I still want to show them. So....here we [View Full Entry]

By TrevorJ
November 14th 2009

Xi'an Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu

Photo 2

Last weekend our class went to Xi'an, one of the oldest cities in China. The top site here is the hall of the Terra-cotta Warriors (sometimes called the 8th wonder of the world). The warriors are made of terra-cotta clay that is supposedly hard as bronze. Each one is unique and was created in the image of a real warrior of the time (I think there are over 2,000). The emperor of the time chose the best soldiers to be models for these clay warriors and wanted a strong material so that these terra-cotta warriors could protect the emperor after his [View Full Entry]

By TrevorJ
November 1st 2009

Leshan and Emei Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu

002

I forgot to post pictures of Leshan and Emei! In Leshan we took a boat out on the water and saw a giant Buddha statue, but unfortunately we didn't get to stand at the foot of it, or even get off the boat. Leshan is known for the Giant Buddha and for being able to stand at the feet, so it was kind of a let down. In Emei we saw some impressive Buddhist temples, but unfortunately there are no photos allowed inside (that goes for any Buddhist temple here), so I'll just have to tell you about it when I [View Full Entry]

By AshleyNathan
October 31st 2009

Mt Emei Asia » China » Sichuan » Emei Shan

mt emei

This was one crazy hard climb, 10hours over 2 days and 40km almost straight up with a stay in a monastery in between. At 3000m on he golden summit watching the sunrise nothing would have stopped me getting there. so after 3hours on a bus and a night in the crappiest hotel on earth called teddy bear hotel, i must have killed 40 nah 50 mozzys before i had even had chance to take my bag off my back! then after a bus journey to the nearest station to the mountain i opted to walk up for about 40mins to the [View Full Entry]

By alannagazelle
October 25th 2009

Pandas!!!! And goodbye Chengdu Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu

Golden Panda

I'm finally leaving for Tibet tomorrow morning!!!! 10 days waiting was more than enough. But I did get to see the pandas here yesterday. You can appreciate that my pictures are very arty as the pandas refused to stay still and pose for pictures. If anyone has advice on taking pictures in low light, where the flash makes it appear darker, but no flash makes things blurry please let me know. They are very cute looking lazy creatures who sprawl out on their backs to eat tons of bamboo. But even more exciting I am going on to western Sichuan and [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » China » Sichuan