Hello chengdu!

Hello Chengdu!

From 6th – 13rd March 2015, I visited Sichuan. In this trip I encountered ancient wisdom, the breath-taking scenery of the nature, the magnificent project from the ancient Chinese people‌and of course the sweet giant pandas!

The trip broadened my horizon and revealed the beautiful China which beyond the tourist sights and modern cities. This journal is the highlights of my trip, and I would like to share it with you.

Enjoy!

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The panda escaped into the city center!

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Context • Dujiangyan irrigation system (都江堰水利 工程) P5 - P25 • The giant pandas (大熊猫) P26 - P39 • The grand Leshan Buddha (乐山大佛)P40 – P47

• The Emei mountain（峨眉山）P48 – P78

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Dujiangyan irrigation system • Dujiangyan irrigation system was built in 256BC, (the Warring States) by the then Qin officer Lin Bing. • Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dujiangyan_irrigation_system

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It was a nice sunny Sunday when I visited Dujiangyan irrigation system park, the early spring, willow trees are turning green and flowers are blooming~

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The nice little pond with shadows in it.

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The tea house next to the ancient building in the park

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The 1st part of the irrigation system – Yu Zui (the fish mouth) 鱼嘴 •

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From the picture you could see 2 rivers, the one on the left is the outer river (A), the one on the right is an artificial inner river (B) which was digged by the locals back in .xxx years ago. B is narrower and deeper than A. In the dry season, 60% of the river water would run from A into B, the principle is that by gravity, water tends to run into where it’s deeper, the wider A enables more water would run into the narrower B. In the flood season, Yu Zui plays a principle role by separate the sand and water, Yu Zui (The curved stone you see in the front of the picture) has a curve shape, so when the water run towards us, the curve Yu Zui directs the water from A into B, but letting only 20% of the sands run into A. (Why? Imagine some passengers are sitting in the bus and the bus is driving towards us. The bus now turns right, which direction would the passengers’ body fall? The answer is left, because of inertia.) The building of the irrigation system used this simple principle, and left alone 80% of the sand still in A. Because A is shallower than B, so it would be also easier to do the maintenance (clean away the sand) in the dry season.

The principle could be summarised into 8 Chinese characters “四六分水，二八排沙” (separate the water by the proportions of 40% and 60%, separate the sand by the proportions of 20% and 80%) Echo - Chengdu trip 2015

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Since it’s the dry season when I visited, so not much water yet, but you could see the different width of the river clearly.

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The curve of the Yu Zui makes the water turn.

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This is how the artificial (inner) river looks like

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It was the dry season when I visited there, so the river was not full of water.

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The bay on the left of the picture is made with concrete in the 70’s. To control the water of the outer river in flood season.

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A zoom-out view

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The 2nd part of the irrigation system – Fei Sha Yan （飞沙堰） • The Fei Sha Yan (on the right of the picture) is located totally at the inner river (B), again used the same principle as Yu Zui (the fish mouth), to make sure the minimum sand would be carried along into the Chengdu plain.

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Fei Sha Yan （飞沙堰）

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The water carries minimum sand keeps running in the inner river.

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The 3rd part of the irrigation system – Bao Ping Kou （宝瓶口） • The 3rd part of the irrigation system is called “Baoping Kou”, when the water from the outer river (A) reaches here, it carries only approx. 8% of the sands. After this point, the water runs into and nurture the whole Chengdu plain (5,300 sq kilometers land) Echo - Chengdu trip 2015

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The sand is separated and kept in the pond by “Li Dui” （离堆）

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Bao Ping Kou （宝瓶口）-- after this point, the water enters Chengdu Plain.

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People live by the inner river bank

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notes • Dujiangyan irrigation system is, by far the most poetic artificial irrigation system I’ve ever seen.

• It does not try to “conquer” the nature, on the contrary, it blends very well into the nature and improves the nature using a simple but effective method.

• The view of the irrigation system is grand, the idea is simple but wise, I admire very much of the designer’s wisdom.

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The Giant pandas Echo - Chengdu trip 2015

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My impression of the pandas is, they don’t do much all day long, just eat and sleep, occasionally they play, super lazy~

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Hanging on the tree style

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The Chengdu people love their pandas, walking in Chengdu you will find panda themed souvenirs everywhere! Even in the subway conjunctions‌

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It’s just a bit too much..

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The Red pandas & the peacocks • Just a reminder that there are also red pandas & peacocks living in the giant panda park, although they are not the main roles in the whole scenario.

• But they don’t mind.

• Many mistaken the red pandas (Ailurus fulgens) and the Procyon lotor are the same animal, but they are not!

They just belong to the same family.

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The red pandas are very cute, they look like a small fox ď Š

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The peacocks are allowed to walk freely in the pandas park, so you could spot them in very random place, e.g. standing on the wall which separate the pandas; on the trees; on the lawn. Etc‌

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Bye~

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The Leshan Giant Buddha •

The giant Buddha was built from 713 to 803, it took totally 90 years and experienced the change of 3 different emperors.

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The Buddha is the mountain itself.

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The Buddha is facing the point where the 3 different rivers cross, which flooded often in the past. The locals believe that the Buddha powered over the flood and bless the place, thus it is given a lot of respect.

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Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshan_Giant_Buddha

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Some visitors chose to use a boat to view the grand Buddha on the river.

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Beautiful small sculptures in the mountain along the way coming down from the Buddha’s head.

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Emei Mountain • A Buddhism scenic mountain.

• Caught a bus from the bottom and arrived Leidong Ping around 9 am, stared climbing, there was still snow up there and encountered some breath taking nature scene.

• Temperature: -3 degrees or so, slippery, need to wear snow grip under the shoes.

• I don’t have much to say, the pictures said everything.

• Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Emei Echo - Chengdu trip 2015

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Felt content to have spicy hot pot in Chengdu!:-P

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The End Thanks for reading!

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