Experience the best of Leshan

Leshan lies in the south of Sichuan, where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet below a wooded ridge. The Leshan Giant Buddha, a seated figure 71 metres high, was begun in the early eighth century by a monk who hoped to tame the rivers' floods, and was carved straight out of the cliff face. Together with Mount Emei it forms a UNESCO World Heritage site. Lingyun Mountain around the statue holds temples and pagodas.

Wuyou Mountain, beside the Buddha, has a temple with fine views of the river, and the Han-dynasty cliff tombs at Mahao are cut into red sandstone slopes outside the city. Mount Emei, a holy Buddhist mountain of more than three thousand metres with temples and troops of monkeys, rises to the west. The writer Guo Moruo was born in Leshan, and his former home is now a museum.

Leshan eats in the Sichuan manner, and bobo ji, skewers of cold-cooked chicken and vegetables dipped in a chilli-oil sauce, is the local invention that has spread across the province. River fish and fresh vegetables fill the markets. The Sichuan Basin is often cloudy, with damp summers and mild winters.