CHINA 2010 SUNDAY 29th AUGUST
Another of those days! We took a 22 bus to the terminus in the north of the island which should have been almost opposite ‘Guanyin Temple’ with a tall pagoda. Buts 22 terminated at ‘Metro’ close to the airport – I had misread the bus number in the crease of our map and Keith hadn’t checked it. Never mind a 33 would take us from the terminus to the Temple. 4 of us board the waiting bus and at the next stop it was full and our female drive shouting for people to move further down the bus to let more people on at the next stop. Unbelievable and it seemed most of the passengers were heading for the same stop as Keith and I.
As our guide book stated a Chinese Temple on one side of the road and ‘Walmart’, American religion on the other! With several Buddhist monks sitting under the shade of the landscape beside large wooden closed gates offering horoscope readings or selling incense sticks we entered through the small open doorway surprising a very smart young security guard. We said “hello” and continued to walk along the road by the side of very nicely manicured borders with different designs of stone lamps amongst the shrubbery. As we approached a bend with a row of ‘villas’ rising up the hillside we began to realise we were in the wrong area although we had a very good view of the pagoda. As a teenager was approaching we asked directions to be told we needed a gateway further along the main road.
This was more like it – a large traditional stone gateway with barrows outside laden with yellow paper squares, incense sticks in all sizes and something in cellophane wrappers that the women were trying to get me to buy but as usual I declined. Inside the gateway we had another uphill climb passing more stallholders and Buddhists sitting on small stools with a poster laid on the ground showing a picture of ‘ying and yang’ and not always done in black and white, the rest of the space taken up with Chinese characters. As we reached the large flat area on which the Temple stood the first thing I noticed was red ribbons hanging from the low trees around the grounds. I now realised this is what the women were trying to sell me and had I known I would have bought a couple. (The last time we tied ribbons on trees was in Benxi in 2005 and that was on top of Wunushan.) This place was very scruffy with building debris and plastic wrappers, bags, bottles etc. I noticed several people lining up by the brick oven ready to burn their paper offerings. Outside the corner of the Temple was a large reclining Buddha protected by a thick plastic shelter. Most of the body of the idol was obscured by wooden planks supporting the not so clear plastic front. Lion dogs guarded the steps leading to the Temple entrance and a small dog had decided to take a rest by one of them. I wondered what he was thinking as he kept looking up at the statue. We were somewhat disappointed to find there was no access to, or even up, the pagoda but as I saw people climbing steps that appeared to lead up the mountainside wondered if there was an entrance towards the rear. We climbed up so far but we were moving away from the building. It was quite pleasant walking through the woodland with a carpet of ferns, sunlight shining through and large black butterflies floating close by, but the steps were built at a sloping angle and when we came to a sign in Chinese with ‘1800 metres’ we decided enough was enough and came back down which we found harder than going up!
Walking back down the roadway we came across what we believe to be several ‘driving test centres’ where the drivers were negotiating tight manoeuvres between poles hanging from a structure over the site. The vehicles being used in all centres were old looking 4X4s and we thought this was an odd place to have these centres unless they thought their God would help them pass their test. We watched one driver reversing into the space between the poles oblivious to the fact that he had caught another pole with the front of his vehicle whilst a couple watching him clapping at his success!
Being very disappointed with Plan A we proceeded with Plan B – to visit a small street highlighted on our map which was about a block away once we managed to cross the road. There were so many new buildings and so many demolition sites we didn’t find our street and decided to call it a day. The highlight of this area was walking by tea shop after tea shop but not the smart sophisticated places these looked more like wholesale depots with huge cardboard boxes piled up inside and outside the premises.
On our way back to catch the 33 bus a taxi was parked outside a school so I suggested we got the driver to take us to ‘Metro’ where we could get the 22 back home. We made a brief stop in ‘Metro’ just so I could get some cornflakes and perhaps a decent brand of coffee. They were reluctant to let Keith in with a half empty bottle of water in his hand. We didn’t want to throw it in the waste bin so a kind assistant offered to keep it until we finished shopping. Got the cornflakes, got the washing liquid – didn’t get the coffee. Got the wrong checkout (as the young cashier was undergoing staff training and had made some drastic error on the till) and vowed never to return.
Coming home was also a nightmare as at the second stop a young Mum brought baby in a pushchair onto the bus and sat on the first seat of 3 facing inwards. Therefore at every stop she had to tip the pushchair over towards her so passengers could get on, baby hanging on to the side as she did so without making a murmer. It wasn’t long before the bus was full especially with young children and parents heading to the beach. Why do they have to have their swim rings inflated before they leave home? One young lad with a very large white plaster covering his forehead was sick everywhere only I hadn’t realised until we got off the bus and Keith announced “Never Again!” I thought the young lad had had an accident and Mum was cleaning him up. Our journey had taken 45 minutes from ‘Metro’ and I pointed out we could have gone back to Tong’an in that time. Keith just looked at me!
At home Keith uploaded the latest edition of ‘Google Earth’ as we find this very handy when researching holidays. It said 15 minutes – 1hour 30 minutes later and still uploading. When it was finished some of the images we looked at still gave dates as far back as 2003.
Not a good day and I was cooking tonight!
As our guide book stated a Chinese Temple on one side of the road and ‘Walmart’, American religion on the other! With several Buddhist monks sitting under the shade of the landscape beside large wooden closed gates offering horoscope readings or selling incense sticks we entered through the small open doorway surprising a very smart young security guard. We said “hello” and continued to walk along the road by the side of very nicely manicured borders with different designs of stone lamps amongst the shrubbery. As we approached a bend with a row of ‘villas’ rising up the hillside we began to realise we were in the wrong area although we had a very good view of the pagoda. As a teenager was approaching we asked directions to be told we needed a gateway further along the main road.
This was more like it – a large traditional stone gateway with barrows outside laden with yellow paper squares, incense sticks in all sizes and something in cellophane wrappers that the women were trying to get me to buy but as usual I declined. Inside the gateway we had another uphill climb passing more stallholders and Buddhists sitting on small stools with a poster laid on the ground showing a picture of ‘ying and yang’ and not always done in black and white, the rest of the space taken up with Chinese characters. As we reached the large flat area on which the Temple stood the first thing I noticed was red ribbons hanging from the low trees around the grounds. I now realised this is what the women were trying to sell me and had I known I would have bought a couple. (The last time we tied ribbons on trees was in Benxi in 2005 and that was on top of Wunushan.) This place was very scruffy with building debris and plastic wrappers, bags, bottles etc. I noticed several people lining up by the brick oven ready to burn their paper offerings. Outside the corner of the Temple was a large reclining Buddha protected by a thick plastic shelter. Most of the body of the idol was obscured by wooden planks supporting the not so clear plastic front. Lion dogs guarded the steps leading to the Temple entrance and a small dog had decided to take a rest by one of them. I wondered what he was thinking as he kept looking up at the statue. We were somewhat disappointed to find there was no access to, or even up, the pagoda but as I saw people climbing steps that appeared to lead up the mountainside wondered if there was an entrance towards the rear. We climbed up so far but we were moving away from the building. It was quite pleasant walking through the woodland with a carpet of ferns, sunlight shining through and large black butterflies floating close by, but the steps were built at a sloping angle and when we came to a sign in Chinese with ‘1800 metres’ we decided enough was enough and came back down which we found harder than going up!
Walking back down the roadway we came across what we believe to be several ‘driving test centres’ where the drivers were negotiating tight manoeuvres between poles hanging from a structure over the site. The vehicles being used in all centres were old looking 4X4s and we thought this was an odd place to have these centres unless they thought their God would help them pass their test. We watched one driver reversing into the space between the poles oblivious to the fact that he had caught another pole with the front of his vehicle whilst a couple watching him clapping at his success!
Being very disappointed with Plan A we proceeded with Plan B – to visit a small street highlighted on our map which was about a block away once we managed to cross the road. There were so many new buildings and so many demolition sites we didn’t find our street and decided to call it a day. The highlight of this area was walking by tea shop after tea shop but not the smart sophisticated places these looked more like wholesale depots with huge cardboard boxes piled up inside and outside the premises.
On our way back to catch the 33 bus a taxi was parked outside a school so I suggested we got the driver to take us to ‘Metro’ where we could get the 22 back home. We made a brief stop in ‘Metro’ just so I could get some cornflakes and perhaps a decent brand of coffee. They were reluctant to let Keith in with a half empty bottle of water in his hand. We didn’t want to throw it in the waste bin so a kind assistant offered to keep it until we finished shopping. Got the cornflakes, got the washing liquid – didn’t get the coffee. Got the wrong checkout (as the young cashier was undergoing staff training and had made some drastic error on the till) and vowed never to return.
Coming home was also a nightmare as at the second stop a young Mum brought baby in a pushchair onto the bus and sat on the first seat of 3 facing inwards. Therefore at every stop she had to tip the pushchair over towards her so passengers could get on, baby hanging on to the side as she did so without making a murmer. It wasn’t long before the bus was full especially with young children and parents heading to the beach. Why do they have to have their swim rings inflated before they leave home? One young lad with a very large white plaster covering his forehead was sick everywhere only I hadn’t realised until we got off the bus and Keith announced “Never Again!” I thought the young lad had had an accident and Mum was cleaning him up. Our journey had taken 45 minutes from ‘Metro’ and I pointed out we could have gone back to Tong’an in that time. Keith just looked at me!
At home Keith uploaded the latest edition of ‘Google Earth’ as we find this very handy when researching holidays. It said 15 minutes – 1hour 30 minutes later and still uploading. When it was finished some of the images we looked at still gave dates as far back as 2003.
Not a good day and I was cooking tonight!
posted by Pam at
03:20
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