I went to another temple yesterday with my swimming friend Huang Jie. This one is called WenShu and is also a working monastery. Before we went to breakfast at a Guangdong (Cantonese) place that was delicious. It was a bunch of little plates of different rolls and noodles and vegetables, like dim sum. Then she took me to the girls side of the monastery were we got to see the young girl students (about my age) saying prayer before lunch. There were little gold candles of yak butter lit all over the place and it was really beautiful. She knew alot about all the customs because her brother had trained to be a monk next door in the boy monestary. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand
all of it, but it was still really interesting to see and I picked up maybe half of it. Then we went next door to the boy monastery, which is much bigger and was much more crowded. They also have a tea house, a vegetarian restaurant, a little hotel, and gardens to walk in there. It was much more touristy, but also very beautiful and nice to just walk around and talk. Outside of the monastery was even more touristy, an "ancient village" style place featuring all sorts of souvenirs and crafts. They even had 4 women working on the world's largest silk embroidery. They started it this October and won't be done until May. There was also a performance of "traditional" Chinese culture. It all seemed a little like Chinese Disney Land and a little false, but it was still fun and all the crafts were real and really
amazing to see; carvings, weaving, painting, etc. Then she took me to a famous restaurant that featured traditional Chengdu style xiao chi (little snacks), which were also very good. Then we walked back to Chengdu. On the way back we passed the cell phone district and I took a picture of some people outside advertising. It is amazing what they will get people to do for money here. You always see crazy things going on in front of the big businesses to attract customers. This was people marching around wearing signs. You will also see little drum core, dance things going on. At the very least, they will line up all their staff outside the restaurant at about 4pm before the dinner rush and they all chant things in a call and response style. Sometimes I am amazed by what becomes normal here, it's hard to be phased by anything anymore.
all of it, but it was still really interesting to see and I picked up maybe half of it. Then we went next door to the boy monastery, which is much bigger and was much more crowded. They also have a tea house, a vegetarian restaurant, a little hotel, and gardens to walk in there. It was much more touristy, but also very beautiful and nice to just walk around and talk. Outside of the monastery was even more touristy, an "ancient village" style place featuring all sorts of souvenirs and crafts. They even had 4 women working on the world's largest silk embroidery. They started it this October and won't be done until May. There was also a performance of "traditional" Chinese culture. It all seemed a little like Chinese Disney Land and a little false, but it was still fun and all the crafts were real and really
amazing to see; carvings, weaving, painting, etc. Then she took me to a famous restaurant that featured traditional Chengdu style xiao chi (little snacks), which were also very good. Then we walked back to Chengdu. On the way back we passed the cell phone district and I took a picture of some people outside advertising. It is amazing what they will get people to do for money here. You always see crazy things going on in front of the big businesses to attract customers. This was people marching around wearing signs. You will also see little drum core, dance things going on. At the very least, they will line up all their staff outside the restaurant at about 4pm before the dinner rush and they all chant things in a call and response style. Sometimes I am amazed by what becomes normal here, it's hard to be phased by anything anymore.
2 comments:
What have you been doing lately? We miss hearing from you. Can you just post a picture of somewhere that you go today?
Nice post! GA is also my biggest earning. However, it’s not a much.
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