Mt. Lingshan Scenic Area

We finally made it to Wuxi!  We've tried to go for a couple of weekends, but it never really worked out until today.  But we got up bright and early this morning to catch our Didi ride which took us straight to Lingshan Scenic Spot!

So this spot is another one of those Chinese people tourist spots.  As in, a lot of Chinese people visit it, but it's not known enough that a lot of foreigners come.  There was hardly any English to be found, but that's hardly a problem for us anymore!  Soon enough we were through the gates and washing our hands in a dripping lotus fountain.  Not sure why we were doing that, but everyone else was so it seemed appropriate.

We stopped by a little booth to buy some breakfast.  My waffle was pretty good, but Bailey wasn't so sure about his little egg custard things.

We hung around the central area for a little bit, admiring the gigantic fountain and a cute little boy who was feeding the birds!

Basically the whole park is devoted to Buddhism.  The first building we hit was "the hall of the three saints" or something.  I'd call it a temple.  It was gorgeous!  It was well kept, clean, and had more natural light than I've ever seen in a Buddhist temple.  I thought it was just beautiful.  And the giant golden saints were impressive!

After that we hit what they call the "Vatican Palace".

We had tickets for a show inside, which we actually missed half of.  The last half was very cool though!  There were a whole bunch of performers in beautiful costumes, dancing while a story was being told.  The stage completely surrounded us in a perfect circle.  A highlight was when it started "raining" right between the stage and the audience!  Then giant screens came down and the next part of the story proceeded via video.  Next thing we knew there was a giant tree rising out of the ground in the middle of the room!  Under it was Buddha (well, I guess he wasn't Buddha quite yet), confirming our guesses of what the story could be about.  It was all very interesting to watch.
After the show we explored the palace, which was full of Buddhist art.  A lot of it was really amazing!  And the building itself was beautiful.  Look at these ceilings!

After that we decided it was time for our trek to the giant buddha.  It is quite the procession.  First we passed a giant hand, which I think is supposed to be the same size as the buddha's.  Everyone was touching it for good luck, including my husband (I decided to forego the germs).

We then passed through a courtyard where Bailey found his favorite animal!

It was time to start the ascent!  Bailey bought some noodles for the way up, but I ended up eating a whole lot of them because they were delicious.

To get to buddha's toes, we had to enter through an exhibit underneath him.  There were some cool cave like things that I enjoyed seeing.

We eventually got on an elevator and soon enough were touching buddha's toes!  Yes, germy, but I think it is worth it for the serious amount of luck I was promised.

It was really crazy being right at Buddha's feet!  He looked giant from far away, but this angle really proved how massive the guy is.

There wasn't much to see after we climbed up to the Buddha, so we headed towards the exit.  We passed by this beautiful pond/lake thing that I especially enjoyed because of the little turtles just chilling on the rocks!

I would definitely recommend the Lingshan Scenic Spot if you ever find yourself in the Wuxi area.  We had such a fun day!