Chinese Opera, Leshan & FIFA Soccer!

We had a busy day today so this probably won't be a long post. We went to a Chinese opera last night which was much better than we thought it would be. It had about 8 different scenes, including some singing, dancing, puppetry, a hand shadow show, a spitting fire show and also the famous changing faces show. We left this morning just after 9 to head to Leshan to see the largest outdoor buddah in China. The trip there took about 2.5 hours, with one washroom break. Since the buddah is so tall the best way to view it is to take a boat out into the harbour and see it that way. We had the option to climb up and down around it but the line up was over 2 hours long. We ate lunch at a CHinese resturant and then Jonathan and I headed back to Chengdu on the public bus as we didn't want to miss the soccer game. Our Chinese guide wrote out notes for us in Chinese so that we could get to the bus station with no problem and purchase two tickets for Chengdu. The tickets cost 42 yuan which is about $6 CND and the bus was similar to a Grey Hound bus. We even got free bottles of water during the trip. Thankfully we got to the station about 15 minutes before the bus left so we were able to get on it at 2:30 and were back in CHengdu by 5. We had to take a taxi from the CHengdu bus station to the stadium and we arrived just as they were played the AUstralian national anthem. Our free tickets were in a much better spot than the ones we had previously purchased so we had a great view of the field. The stadium wasn't full but there were still lots of people there. YOu could spot all the Canadians because they all had their flags flying! The game started off with a goal from Canada and at half time it was the only goal. The Aussies scored early in the second and then the Canadians scored again near the end of regulation time. There were 3 minutes tacked on the end for injury time and the Aussies managed to score again so the game ended in a tie. We're not sure if Canada will more on to the next round as they needed a win to guarentee them a spot. We meet some Canadians teaching in CHengdu so had a nice chat with them during half time. (One was from Deep RIver and the other from Toronto.)
TOmorrow we're headed to see the pandas and then will head to the Yangtze river for our three day cruise. We won't have internet access while we're on the boat so you probably won't hear from us for 3 or 4 days.