Chengdu Travel Guide - Dazu Rock Carvings Pictures

Chengdu Travel - After some enquiries regarding the Buddhist Rock carvings at Dazu, it seemed a good time to show some of the pics we took during a trip made last January - taking a couple of Italian girls on a Dazu day trip from Chengdu.
By the way the many handed lady above is the god of Mercy - apparently there are 1007 hands, if you don't believe then you best start counting!!
To see this and the other pics in their full-splendor - klick on them to get the larger image.


That last statue is in a small cave, but most of the Dazu carvings were made on open-air cliff-faces. The work itself dates between the Tang and Song Dynasties (9th -13th centuries). At the biggest site at Baoding (there are several sites - Dazu is main town of the area) the scale and state of preservation of this ancient work is very impressive - this picture gives an idea of that, and also shows what kind of viewing opportunities are offered to the visitor.


Here are the Italian girls - they were working with the then upcoming Olympics and had decided to do the Dazu trip from Chengdu. The distance to Dazu from Chengdu is about 200km (Chongqing is closer by about 50km) - and it's possible to do most of the drive by motorway. However to give our guests a bit more of a view to the "real" Sichuan - we drove to the carvings, using country roads, passing through the type interesting small towns and villages that most tourists just never get to see. We took the motorway route home.


Here's another section of carvings - this time at Beishan. These carvings, also very interesting, were not so impressive as those at Baoding.


Viewing the carvings at Beishan.


Here's the girls with Meggie - there are a few hangers-on in the background - obviously trying to get into the picture!!!


Its difficult to capture the scale of this monument in photos - the sites are very impressive.


A few more hands to count.


Its good fun just looking for the weird and wonderful. Could this be a rather grouchy man sitting on an armchair cat?


It's also a good fun place to play around with a camera.


There's something special about this face.


This guy reminds me of my old Maths Teacher at Moseley Grammar - we called The Toad.


A monk in his Lotus flower.


Dazu - a very nice day out.