I started my day on the terrace talking to Lily, who works here part time and is also in her third year at University studying engineering. She really wanted to study art but her parents said no and now, luckily, she is enjoying engineering and has just come back from 3 months studying in Toronto. We were talking about education and her pragmatic approach to it all and the stress that everyone seems to be under. her attitude was really interesting. To them it seems like there is no point in complaining, you just have to knuckle down and work bloody hard to succeed.
I have taken such FANTASTIC photos on my camera today but can I transfer them across?! Can I hell. it sure is a pain in the neck. No systems seem to support each other and as I only have a VPN on this ipad I need everything here. Anders, the guy who helped me on Sunday isn't around in the week and the others aren't as clued up.
So today I went to WenShu monastery. it was rebuilt in 1999 and was amazing. I've seen chanting Buddhists sat on bright yellow cushions in the main section. I've seen women in a multitude of different ethnic dresses. I've seen women wandering around praying and chanting and giving offerings. Infact apart from one meditative guy, I have seen only women praying! Lots of them, from old to young. Buddhism for women is alive and kicking here.
I've seen old people in deck chairs playing cards and mahjong under pagodas and eaten lunch in the monastery's restaurant. Which was great, I just had to point at stuff people were eating to order. Nothing in the place was in English. Infact I haven't seen another westerner today at all.
I've also eaten fried tofu covered in chillis and onions from a street stall. I watched what a guy did and then just copied him. Was yummy.
I then came back to base and tried to organise photos with no damn success! Bloody annoying!!!!! I have such great snaps to share. I'll just have to add them once I'm home. But it won't be the same!
Then I went off to People's Park. All I can say is it's way different to People's Park in Banbury.
I wandered around for ages, had some tea in a tea house. Watched families with kid. This is strange, a family gathering is one toddler and a minimum of 4 doting adults with them. I haven't seen any little kids playing out with other kids on the street. One kid policy I suppose.
As the sun went down I was able to witness the Tai chi and martial arts. God, itwas so beautiful. Everyone in time. Like one big group push and pull of energy. Everyone so focused. AMAZING. I never took any photos, it kind of seemed a bit of an insult. Infact I saw lots of random groups of mostly oldish men and women, doing Taichi. Even on the side of busy roads there were groups of up to 10 people doing dancing with streamers, small drums, or just doing slow exercises. The Chinese are so lucky to have this kind of experience in their culture. I just hope the young people start to get involved too, otherwise it is going to die out.
I then wandered about for ages and got a bit lost. getting lost in China is a strange experience. I tried to get some hot pot but it was impossible due to being alone. I would have had to order enough for 8people and that would have just been a waste. I did notice that there was 'Cock kidney' on the English menu. umm, wonder if I would have ordered that?!!
So off I wandered again trying to match Chinese symbols on signs to my road map. more by luck I ended up at a metro station. I went down, looked at the map able to resurface out of the right exit!
Here there was information in English.
I then found one of the best and oldest, tofu restaurants in town as recommended by my hostel. it was my lucky day. I arrived 5 minutes before they closed. My oh my oh my oh my. I ate gourmet food for under a tenner. phenomenal quality and taste. The taste was out of this world. Sichuan pepper I love you! I take back and apologise China for saying I don't like Chinese food. The stuff I am eating is consistently excellent. fresh, clean, not oily at all and totally delicious and extremely varied. Yes, being alone means that I need to talk to my blog and I have to say( If you haven't realised ) that the food here has surpassed my expectations 100 fold!
I then got the number one bus back. I know the route now. Buses are easy you just have to throw 2 yuan into a big postbox looking thing on the bus. ( or you use your Oyster card thingy.) If you don't have the exact change you just ask the people behind you to give you their change and you pay for them. I am just making sure that I have a wallet with enough lose change in.
Must go to bed now. I have to be up early because the Chengdu water service is going off for 12hours from 9am to 9pm. At least they have given us warning. I want to get the bus out to the biggest Buddha in the world tomorrow. (Biggest since the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan.)
night
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