China - Bingling Si


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July 9th 2008
Published: July 15th 2008
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Carved from the rock-face at Bingling Si
I say for a couple of nights in a town called Liujaxia, where they obviously don't see many Westerners from the looks I got, and caught a boat up the Huang He (Yellow River) from the huge Dam, 60km to the Bingling Si Buddha caves.

An enormous seated Buddha has been carved from the cliff face. At 27m high and 1600 years old, it's an amazing thing to behold (though not the biggest in China by a long way) and some of the other carvings there are both old and beautiful, a bit like me.

I took a half hour walk up the valley to visit a small working Buddhist temple and had tea and biscuits with a very lonely monk call Putojansu. It was a surreal experience.

On the speed-boat on the way back to the Dam, I see the venue for the Olympic rowing competitions.


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The scale is incredible
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Working temple

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