god morning (or afternoon) (or is it evening at home?)

To continue where I left off last night:
So much birdsong in Louguantai, especially in the mornings. A pheasant quawked from the brick wall around the field of ?millet? rice? nearby as I drank my tea by the window. Many of the painted scenes in the temples feature birds, a great variety. Here there is a red-billed magpie..very handsome, with a very long tail, and just as raucous as our homegrown yellow-billed kind.

On Sunday, we climbed up the knoll to Lao Tzu's cauldron (well, some replica of it anyway) and then a little farther. The little farther was the peaceful, quiet part. All we could see was the mountains and a few mud brick farm houses. The quiet was rather stunning and much welcome.

There is a shrine atop the knoll near the cauldron and an old monk in it attending to the prayers and incense-burning. Also incense sellers, noodle stands, fire-works, trinkets, a beggar or two, and many Chinese tourists, many of the women in high-heeled shoes and carrying umbrellas as parasols, just like in the city. Two pines are wrapped in red cloth and you can buy strips to tie in their branches. I was reminded of the tree at Sun Dance. As recently as 15 years ago , this was a place that a hermit could call home. No more.

Government tolerance of and even support of Louguantai and many other places of religious/cultural significance is a double-edged sword; the temples are allowed to exist for tourism, so the monks are busy taking care of the tourists and it is difficult to cultivate the Tao or serenity of spirit amidst the clack and bustle.

After our quiet lunch of Cal's almonds and the cucumbers we were gifted on the walk up, we set off back down the hill. We opted for the stream-side trail, which was quite long, but lovely, with several narrow water-falls. Nice to be out in nature, even if part of the trail had been cemented and hokey fake branch railings made of cement lined it.

We got down the hill with enough time to investigate the shiny temple. This temple is also a working temple, although much busier and noisier with tourists than our shabby temple. It is absolutely gorgeous...the paint new, the rooves solid, the flower beds weeded. There is a gingko tree that legend has it was planted by Lao Tzu and it is big enough to be that old. The attention to detail in the decoration is extraordinary: each beam, each strut, each exposed end of a pole is hand-painted-beautifully-in geometic designs. Then there are large medallions with lovely scenes painted in a more-or-less realistic style: Lao Tzu teaching, Lao Tzu on his blue ox, birds, mountains. Lots of red paint, lots of green tile, all shiny. There are also steles made of stone with calligraphy chronicling the history of the place, some could be 2000+ years old. Two more temples, each progressively older are up the hill to the north. And, yes, we climbed up to them, too.

The next morning we had an early walk to the old pagoda (the leaning pagoda, closer inspection revealed) through fields and orchards, all worked by hand. No agri-business here. Many of the wild plants were familiar to me from home: yarow, mugwort, chestnut, wild grape. Lots of smoke-bush (eat your heart out, Sondra, it's smokin, big time)

Back to our "home" hotel in Xian, only to have the earthquake hit soon after our arrival. Many people ran into the street, some very frightened and upset. Cal was upstairs, standing in a doorway, just like you're supposed to. Me? I was in the street..it's just counter-intuitive to stand inside a building, when the ground is rolling and making you feel sea-sick. It lasted a long time.

Yesterday was errand/business day. We found the foreign language bookstore and purchased a phrasebook with English, "pinyin" (Romanized spelling and pronunciations of Mandarin characters) and the characters themselves. The jury is still out on it's usefulness. Cal dared to send some gifts from the post office...very efficient and polite service, although who knows if/when things will arrive. We wandered through the Muslim quarter, seeing the Great Mosque from the outside (ornate, Chinese looking), checking out the food stalls (lots of meat, fewer prepared foods). A different feeling there: ?a more cohesive community? Cal said it seemd somewhat less hectic.

We are planning another foray to a sacred Taoist mountain. We leave tomorrow. The China part of our trip is starting to seem like pilgrimage of sorts. I'm liking that.

More reports to follow.
xo
ChaCha