Spring Holiday - The Rest of the Story

The last two days of our trip seemed to go by in a blur. It started with a trip to Du Fu’s Cottage. Du Fu was a famous Chinese poet who lived about 712-770 AD and spent 9 years in Cheng Du. His “cottage” is now a huge area with superb grounds. It was very restful walking around the gardens. Jane was able to give us a pretty good summary of his life which was filled with frustration and failure even though he managed to write some 3,000 poems of which some 1,500 survive. They document the trials and tribulations of the poor and down-trodden. He was witness to a (one of many) tumultuous period in Chinese history where a prosperous empire was brought down by warfare.

For lunch we bussed to an outdoor restaurant in the Yellow Dragon Stream Old Town. It is 1700 years old and has 7 streets, all stone, and no vehicles; that makes for great strolling. We sat down at tables for four and the staff immediately removed the tables. A bit unusual we thought until they came back with one large table so we could all sit around it! Then we were descended upon by a group of ladies who offered us “massagee?” (just neck, shoulders and arms while you sat outside) and didn’t take “no” for an answer very easily. We also got the offer of wax removal from our ears. Very pleasant thought at lunch time! A third set of vendors offered to shine our shoes.

One of the highlights was an older lady with a beautiful smile who made flower wreathes. Dianne’s “boy friend” Bryon (see dinner picture in Spring Holiday 2009 blog entry) just “had” to buy one for Dianne. She seemed genuinely pleased at the interest we showed in her work.

There are many small shops which sell typical snacks and tourist junk. I bought some great hot, fresh biscuit-like things (great description, eh?) which we munched on while walking around. I also had to buy a “Diablo” like the one we had seen used at the Sichuan Opera. I have looked it up on Google to see how it works; it doesn’t come with instructions in any language. The son of one of the teachers has one and I can get him to give me lessons.

Back in Cheng Du we dined at another Ex-pat restaurant, Zoe’s, which was filled with people speaking English. Seemed a bit strange after being so immersed in a Chinese environment. After dinner, we walked a block back to the Shamrock pub where we had had our first dinner. They were holding an open mike night and Shannon, who is quite the singer, got up and did a few tunes with the band. Unfortunately, they allow smoking in this environment and it took away some of the enjoyment.

Thursday, we headed up to Leshan to see another Giant Buddha. It is interesting to see how many statues of Buddha there are in a country where there is no religion. It was a fairly long drive. We stopped at a road-side tea shop which was really a tourist trap. We had seen many of these in Italy and didn’t think much of them. This one was different and we were happy to acquire a few mementoes. They are building neat trails up through the tea plantation and in a few years it will be a really nice place to walk during the tea stop. The statue of the ox-drawn cart in the accompanying photos was located here.

We had seen the largest cast Buddha in Hong Kong; now we have seen the largest stone Buddha, this one carved out of the side of a hill like Egyptian sculptures. It dates from the Ting dynasty in the early 700s. If you would like to know more, check out Leshan Giant Buddha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshan_Giant_Buddha.

We were lucky to be there on Thursday. Friday was the start of the May holiday weekend and the crowds were supposed to be huge. We saw many preparations being made to handle the crowds. I really didn’t know what to expect and when you climb the hill and get a first glimpse of the statue you aren’t sure what you are seeing. But as you get close to the side of the cut and realise how big it is, it is astounding. We looked at it from above and both sides then descended to the river bank and jumped onto one of the many boats available.

The boats cruise down river giving you a quick glimpse of the statue then turn around and slowly chug back up stream. As they approach the statue the captain matches the boats speed to that of the current and you get the opportunity to take a zillion pictures. When you see the size of the people climbing up and down the paths you really get a good idea of how massive it is.

For our Last Supper we decided to go to “Pete’s Tex Mex”, another Ex-pat restaurant in Cheng Du. With seven people we needed two cabs but there were none to be found. Several with passengers went by but there was a real shortage of empty cabs. It was suggested that perhaps it was “shift change” and until the new drivers came on duty there were none to be had. Finally one came and the three fossils took off. We would meet at this famous coffee place “across the street” from Pete’s. We certainly appreciated cell phones at this point. Several calls later we discovered the other group was at Pete’s and we were at the coffee place. With no addresses or English signs to guide us, how were we supposed to meet? Kevin said he would go outside and walk down the street until we met him. Unfortunately he was across a very busy four lane road with a divider that prevented us from crossing when we finally saw him waving. Cell phone messages led us to a crossing and, eventually, the restaurant. It was across the street alright, but three or four blocks down. We would never have found each other without phones.

Supper was great and lots of laughs were exchanged along with a certain amount of sadness that our trip was coming to an end. After supper, the fossils decided to walk home even though we weren’t sure how far it was. Turned out to be great walk; just about an hour on a beautiful evening. We even stopped to chat with two groups of people who wanted to speak English with us. The only problem occurred about a block from the hotel when we were almost wiped out by a speeding electric scooter that came screaming sound a corner with no lights. These things are the worst menace because they make no noise and move at quite a clip. But we made it home in one piece.

Friday saw an early start as we had an early flight back to Dalian. Uneventful flights are the best and the school driver was there to pick us up. We even gave a lift to three gals returning from their Spring Holiday so there was lots of sharing going on.

Saturday and Sunday were available for school work for those poor suckers who had to return to school on Monday. I was able to relax and start sifting through the notes to get ready for the blog. Little did I know what was in store for me in Term Four. But that is another story….

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