Guide to China
Must See China
- Army of Terracotta Warriors (Bingmayong)
- Cloud Ridge Caves
- Forbidden City
- Grand Buddha
- Great Wall
- Jiuzhaigou
- Karakoram Highway
- Nanjing
- Summer Palace
- Tai Shan
- Xi'an
Places in China
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Carved into a cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Dadu He and Min He rivers, the Grand Buddha measures an overwhelming 71m (233ft) high. Qualifying as the largest buddha in the world, his ears are 7m (23ft) long, his insteps 8.5m (28ft) broad, and you could picnic on the nail of his big toe - itself 8.5m (28ft) long.
This mammoth project was begun in 713 AD, engineered by a Buddhist monk called Haitong who organised fund raising and hired workers; it was finally completed 90 years after his death. Below the Grand Buddha was a hollow where boatmen used to vanish - Haitong hoped that the Buddha's presence would subdue the swift currents and protect the boatmen. A building once sheltered the giant statue, but it was destroyed during a Ming dynasty war.
Tags
- monument, religious/spiritual