Great Buddha at Lingshan

During our time in Wuxi, we also visited the Great Buddha at Lingshan. Built only several years ago, the Great Buddha stands at 88 meters (96.24 yards) tall, excluding the lotus stand on the bottom. If you include the lotus stand, then the Great Buddha measures to over a 100 meters high.
 
While the Great Buddha itself was very impressively large, personally I felt that it was built using Buddhism as an excuse to build a large tourist attraction to increase tourism revenue in the area. But at least now I can say I've been there.

Fountain during "Birth of Buddha" show

Wuxi

Located 128 km (79.5 miles) northeast of Shanghai, Wuxi was established 3,500 years ago as the capital of the Wu Kingdom. Originally, the area was named Youxi, meaning "having tin," in reference to the vast tin deposits that used to be found in the area. However, when the tin deposits dried up, the name was changed to Wuxi, which means "no tin."

Despite the lack of tin nowadays, Wuxi has remained a commercial center for thousands of years. During the Qing and Ming dynasties, it served as the main agricultural center for rice production. Nowadays, Wuxi is the commercial center for textile production.

 

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