Back Atcha

Dearly Beloveds~

I take it back..apparently there were some deaths in Xian from the earthquake, but that's all the English language newspaper would tell us. Around 60 people, it is reported. But none of them is Cal or me and we haven't seen any evidence of damage here.

There will be no photos here, at least for awhile. I am taking a little sabbatical. I like writing, I like taking photos, I don't even mind sitting here typing. BUT mastering the technology that would get the photos to you from me is completely beyond my capabilities. And please don't tell me it's simple...it just makes me feel stupid. The activity brings me no joy and has not been met with success , so I am abandoning it for now. Those of you who know me at all well will be shocked and appalled to know that I even spent several hours this afternoon at one of the 3 Starbucks here in order to use the wifi and all to no avail. So sorry!

However, I have lots of tales to tell. So, here we go:

Since last I wrote, I have discovered the Tai Chi practitioners at the closest park! It's true: in the mornings (I've not quite made it at dawn yet) groups of people gather in parks across China to exercise. Tai Chi is what interests me, but all kinds of exercise goes on there: badminton, jazzercise(complete with blaring bass), ballroom dancing. Lots and lots of Qi Gong, too; just about anything qualifies as Qi Gong as far as I can tell: bouncing your back against a tree, slapping your belly as you walk, banging on your legs as you stretch them. They all feel good, actually. So at the mustard yellow pagoda, around the corner from the jazzercise, with it's own blaring but peaceful music are the Tai Chi-ers. The more serious wear silk pajamas: pink, white (with red tennies!), black, various shades of blue. Not too many young people, most are at least middle-aged. Not everybody knows the forms perfectly, which is what gave me the courage to join in , at the very back. People have been very kind and accepting, motioning me into the line and such. Today I even got drawn into the group of women that does very athletic warm-ups. I guess I kept up OK, although when my new friend tried to intoduce me to the folks doing a fan set, they weren't having it. At least I think that's what happened..it's very hard to tell when you don't speak the language! This morning Tai Chi may be my favorite thing so far.

The terra-cotta warriors, on the other hand were not my favorite thing. We felt more or less obligated to go, I guess. I have to confess that I was more impressed than I anticipated being when I walkied into the first excavation area...there are a lot of damn wariors and horses in there! Technologically, it was an enormous feat, of course. And it's useful to remember how advanced various people on the earth have been historically. But, ultimately, ya seen one terra cotta warrior, ya seen em all. It's warfare and conquest, ego and testosterone..who cares?

We hired a private car and driver, a sweet young man who was a terrible driver..timid and slow. He told us, out of the blue, as we drove, that he had 2 children. I wanted to ask how that was possible but the language barrier prevented it. I did ask him if he knew the term "midwife" and he nodded vigorously, but communication broke down again when I asked if his babies had been born at home or in hospital. Fathers (and grandfathers) appear to be as involved in the daily care-taking of children as mothers..it's a pleasure to see them wiping noses, offering rice at the end of chopsticks, doing the precious and tedious work that it takes.

After the warriors, we went, against the advice of all the tourist-oriented folks, who mostly wanted to steer us to places we would purchase trinkets, to the Hua-Qing pools and palaces. We were determined to have a hot soak and we got it! I cost us dearly, but was worth it. The mountain from with the springs originate is called Lishan and is a sacred mountain for Taoists. The architecture was impressive...curly-cornered rooves and curtained porches by pools.

After a rainy day in Xian, we took our first expedition out! Friday morning we set out for Louguantai, about 2 hours southwest. This is the place that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching. He was leaving China, fed up with it all...the busyness, commerce, conquest. (this is around 200 BC, incidentally) Although he was venerated as a sage and was begged to stay by the emperor, he wasn't having it. At the last out-post, the edge of the fertile farming plains where the mountains rise steep and forested, he was asked by someone who recognized him as a sage, to write down all that he knew. After he did, he mixed his elixir of immortality and disappeared on his blue ox. Perhaps he went to India, perhaps he meditated in a cave for years, perhaps he tumbled over a precipice, but he left behind one of the great wisdom books of the ages. And we walked the same paths he walked.

Here are some of the things I saw from the bus window as we travelled there: adobe buildings, piles of coal in door-yards, courtyard/atrium compounds, peach orchards, kiwi orchards, heaps of garbage, sections of fields dug out, garbage pushed in, crops planted over it, Chinese-looking mountains (pointy, abrupt), green, green, green.

We were helped to a hotel in the National Forest by the police (really). Besides 3 young women (2 Aussies and a Brit) who were volunteering in the Panda Park, we were the only foregners there for 3 days. We could see an old pagoda amidst farmed terraces climbing the mountains from the balcony of the hotel. We took an exploratory stroll up the mountain a ways, stopping at open-sided pavillions to rest. On the way down, a sacred Taoist rooster attacked Cal who fended him off with the large packets of incense sticks we had been coerced into buying at the entrance. Good fortune!

Next morning, we visited the Panda Reserve. It really should be called a zoo and features golden-haired monkeys (endangered), red ibis (highly endangered) as well as the (endangered) pandas. There are breeding programs for all these creatures. The first animal we saw on our arrival was an adult female panda. It really was kind of thriliing to be so close to her as she ambled about her yard and took her morning poop and all. They are the incarnation of cute.
Monkeys are always fascinating to me and there were 2 babies in one cage, quite young it seemed. The creatures I felt the worst for were the golden takins, large, cloven-hoofed shaggy animals from very high elevations. Unclear why they were in the park since it is not their natural habitat: endangered? breeding? They need rocks to keep their hooves from growing too long and crippling them, or at the least someone to trim their hooves.. neither of which they had.

That afternoon, we went to one of the Taoist temples. Once we had our incense sticks, the locals kept steering us to this particular one and I'm so glad. We call it the shabby temple, to distinguish it from the shiny temple. There were a few monks about, with their topknots and gaiters. I followed Cal's lead and took no photos. It is a wondrous and peaceful place and just experiencing it was very fulfilling. There are roses and kiwi vines and a large pool of greenish water with bright orange fish in it. The tiled rooves were orange. Laid out symmetrically, there were 2 levels with open-sided pavillions with curly rooves..you could climb up 2 stories on cement spiral stairs. Near these were the large incense burners. A monk came out and helped us light the bundles of incense (you first dip it in kerosene). I said some prayers and then sat awhile quiet in one of the little pavillions. Finally we ascended to the highest, central alcove. An old twinkly-eyed monk helped us with the incense burning and then directed us up the steps to the shrine room. This held an enormous statue of a monk taming a tiger on one hand and a dragon on the other. We knelt on cushions and bowed and prayed (well, I prayed and Cal did whatever it is that Cal does). Another monk played with his cell phone the while. The twinkle-eyed monk came and rubbed each of our temples and patted our shoulders. We rose to leave, but he signalled us to come write on yellow sheets of tissue paper. Since he had used wads of yellow paper in the lighting of our incense, I can only assume that ours will soon be burnt as well and our prayers rise up to heaven with the smoke.

It's late (we've been going to bed early here) and I hope this is plenty for you to read at one sitting..it is certainly plenty for me to write! I'll continue writing about the other wonders of Louguantai in my next post.