Happy New Year from Sichuan

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Photos:



....my original plan to visit Miss Piggy for her wedding floundered when either I or she (or both) mixed up the dates. It's on March 8th, not February 8th. After two days on the farm & a few more in Guiyang plus a trip to the Huangguoshu Falls, documented in last week's newsletter, it's time to make a move. Thoughts of warmer weather & sunkissed beaches have been abandoned. Southern & central China are just starting to thaw out from some of the heaviest snowfalls for years.....

…..Guilin, about 500km east? Su Yin Hui (Suzy), the English teacher whose wedding I attended a few months ago, will be there with her husband. It apparently requires changing trains halfway. Kunming, about the same distance east, close to some beautiful scenic spots. Maybe Chengdu, north of Guiyang & east of Chongqing. Only an overnight train ride (about eight or nine hours). I have heard many times it's one of the more “liveable” cities in China, a bit more laid back, not so polluted as some & with a mild climate. OK, Chengdu it is, in Sichuan province. The name means Four (Si) Rivers (chuan). Chengdu means “Successful” or “Accomplished” city. That must be a good omen....

…..I switch off my body clock when I travel. I eat when food is available & skip meals if it's not convenient to eat or I'm doing something else. I get up & go to sleep to accommodate circumstances, up for sunrise if I want a photo, or to bed at whatever time suits. Booking ahead is easy in China & I have a room with the same hotel chain, (Ru Jia – literally “As if Home”, or Home Inn), as in Guiyang. After arriving fresh from a good sleep in the hard sleeper bunk & booking in there's a small cafe selling breakfast a few streets away. Many foreigners baulk at a Chinese breakfast but, unless you're in an expensive hotel catering to westerners forget the cornflakes & bacon 'n' eggs. The Sichuan food is way too oily & spicy for a lot of people I know but I love it, even ffirst thing in the morning.....

…..Chengdu is just another big Chinese city, full of cranes, new building developments & a generous covering of smog. The new TV tower at the end of the road near the hotel is not visible until midday. Maybe a little unfair. It is winter & the lack of visibility is partly just honest fog. So close to the Chinese New Year a lot of businesses are closed & the shopfronts covered in enough roller doors to completely cover a small European country.....

…..there doesn't appear to be any real defining feature that says, “This is Chengdu”. There is a series of 4 vaguely concentric ring roads that probably make navigation easier when you are familiar with them. The print on the map is all in Chinese & the characters so small that the complex ones are unreadable. Businesses have their premises boldly marked though. Sadly there are over thirty five KFCs.....

…..the Chinese movie “Red Cliff”, the story about a legendary battle far back in Chinese history, is a great adventure tale. Had I not seen the film I might not have got so much out of the Zhuge Liang museum, dedicated to the famous strategist whose brilliance is so graphically illustrated in John Woo's production. As I have seen it the museum is fascinating & surrounded by the usual, lavish gardens.....

…..I have heard of the Grand Buddha, the largest carved Buddha in the world, at Leshan, not far from Chengdu so I end up on a two day bus tour. The construction was started in 713AD but, due to insufficient funding wasn't completed until ninety years later. It was built in the hope that it would calm the turbulent waters of three rivers, (Qing Yi, Da Du He & Min), that join at Leshan & apparently so much rock was removed in building the statue & tipped into the water that the currents were altered & it actually became safer for shipping. That's doing it the hard way though.....

…..on a Chinese tour it is normal to be taken to various “museums” & “places of interest” along the way, in the hope that you will buy something from the shop which usually constitutes the major part of the venue. The crystal spheres at the jewellery shop would be too big even for my huge suitcase & at ¥120,000 (around Au$20,000) well out of my price range.....

…..I'm determined not to overwork such words as, “colossal”, “gigantic”, “incredible” etc. in this newsletter & the only way I can do so after seeing some of these sights is to create my own reconstruction of the conversation that led to their creation. Not historically accurate by any means but it looks as though this is how it all happened.....

…..Master: We need a great symbol to represent the Buddha where those three rivers join.
Disciple, (nervously): What do you have in mind?
M: There's a huge sandstone cliff overlooking the confluence, you know, near Leshan.
D: Er, yes. You'd like a statue of the Buddha on top?
M: I'm thinking it would look more impressive if we made the Buddha actually out of the
cliff.
D: Are you serious,Master? It's solid sandstone. The cliff is over seventy metres high.
M: Perfect.
D: It'd take a good ninety years.
M: Time is illusory. By the way, you could carve some steps either side so future
generations can appreciate the oneness of the Buddha & the cliff.
D: They'd be too steep. Visitors could kill themselves.....
M: Death too is illusory.....

…..as during my trip last week to Guizhou, some of the things you see on the way to or from the main attraction can be as amazing as the sight you came to visit. After negotiating the incredibly narrow, uneven steps on the far side of the Grand Buddha there is a large grotto on the other side of the cliff, carved out of the sandstone, apparently within the last century.....

Master (a later one): We need something to complement the Great Buddha.
Disciple, (nervously): What do you have in mind? (Quickly), There's no space for
another seventy one metre high statue.
M: No, no, something that represents the sunyata, the emptiness that is the essence of
matter. A carving of the one thousand armed deity in the cave on the other side.
D (puzzled): There is no cave on the other side.
M: The cave is there. With right intention, right action, right effort, right mindfulness you
will perceive it.
D: I don't understand.....
M: By remove the stone, which you know from your studies, is purely illusory, the cave
will be revealed.
D: (dismayed): It's what others might call carving. On the other side of the cliff. By hand?
M (with a satisfied smile): You are attaining clarity. We can call it a grotto if it makes
it easier for you.
D (wearily): OK, I'll get some tools. How many arms on the one thousa – ah! It's OK, I
remember.

…..You really will have to have a look at the photos on Photobucket, even though they were taken on a grey, miserable day & can't possibly do full justice to the collection of statues, temples & pagodas, spread over a huge area with, of course, thousands of steps, maybe another reason why Chinese people are generally so slim. It's common to see people in their seventies & eighties here making their way up, (& down), the most daunting climbs.....

…..even this was not enough to prepare me for the “Wood Museum” at nearby Suji. Ebony here means not the African or Asian timber straight from the tree but wood that has lain underground for thousands of years &, hardening & darkening in the process. It is actually mined, not cut down, around Leshan & sometimes found when dredging the rivers. There are colossal, (oops, I used that word, but it's appropriate) chunks of the stuff including twenty metre high whole trees & other, abstract, pieces created by the roots. When they get to carving it really is hard to believe both the scale & intricacy of the work. Lots of guards & “No photography” signs. What a pity. After walking out thinking we are going back to the bus we are led into another building, with all of the Buddha's original disciples carved life size in row after row of beautifully crafted statues. I did get photos of some of these.....

…..Craftsman 1: Hey, I'm pretty stuffed after carving that five metre long chunk of ebony
into a detailed depiction of the Battle of Red Cliff. I don't even have room for it at home.
Craftsman 2: I know how you feel. I just finished the Dream of the Red Chamber.
C1: I want something a bit smaller for the next one. I was thinking maybe one of the
Buddha's disciples.
C2: Great idea, I could do one too.

Later:
C1: Hey, mine turned out really well. Fancy doing another one?
C2: Yeah, lets.....

Much later:
C1: I've got two hundred & fifty now. And you?
C2: Yeah, same. That's all of them. What can we do with them?
C1: They're building this big museum down the road. They'd probably take the Battle of
Red Cliff & the Dream of the Red Chamber too.
C2: I hear they've got an ebony carving of the one thousand armed deity,
more than three metres high.
C1: That's crazy, hands are always the hardest bit to get right......

…..I can almost excuse the cheap lunch (the Chinese people on the tour are all obviously put out, finding that it consists of boiled rice & several dishes of green vegetables but only one small meat dish & one bony fish. The Extreme Budget hotel, (not it's real name but it should be), at Emei Shan would be excusable IF there were hot water from the amazing contraption on the bathroom wall, which looks a little like the Time Machine from the HG Wells novel of the same name. There is no hot water in the morning either. A few days on the farm last week was good training.....

…..I realise I don't know anything about Emei Shan (Mount Emei). I don't know enough Chinese to get much detail from my travelling companions. I gather it's a temple, one of four main Buddhist sites in China. Oh, well, maybe just another temple, I bet there will be a lot of steps, otherwise my expectations are a blank.....

…..when we arrive, early in the morning, after a breakfast as frugal as yesterday's lunch & dinner, I find the ticket office is in fact a bus station, with twelve ticket offices. For a visit to a temple? Now I'm intrigued. Not too many people around as it's a grey, foggy, winter morning. It can hardly be worth getting out of bed for. My expectations are still low.....

…..We finally get on a bus, once the computer system is restored. I could have written the tickets by hand (in Chinese) in half the time. The bus just keeps going, up, for an hour & a half. We have left the fog behind, the pine forests on the slopes all around are covered in snow & I'm surprised the driver doesn't stop to fit snow chains. The snow is pure white, none of that half-melted, grey, slushy stuff. The sky is now a deep blue, the only clouds to be seen are below us. This is the most fantastic view I've seen for ages......

…..I am offered some metal spikes which are tied around your shoes. I should have taken them really. I manage the next stage of the journey up the steps covered with packed snow to the cable car station. That's another half hour or so with stops to take photos, to pick yourself up or, (a great icebreaker, so to speak), to pick up fellow travellers who have fallen or allow them to help you. The art is to leave enough space so that if you do start sliding down, the steps thankfully being not too steep, you don't take too many others down as you go. Great fun. Everyone seems to take it in good part.....

…..by the time we have reached the top in the cable car the clouds are well & truly below us & the view is one of the most magnificent I have ever seen. The original wooden temple burned down but another has been built, not all that big but quite recent & beautifully finished in gold. The most arresting sight is the golden statue of the Buddha, sitting on four, six-tusked elephants, with four serene faces looking north, south, east & west, another four on top of those facing between the cardinal directions &...... a picture says a thousand words. See the Photobucket link above. Believe it or not I have restrained myself in the number posted considering the amount of photos taken.....

…..despite the snow & the altitude it feels quite warm up here. It's great to feel the sun's heat again. I am feeling short of breath. Not surprising as the peak is 3500 metres high. The scenery itself is breathtaking. There is a tiny temple building on a slightly higher peak some way along a path. It's tempting to go but I'm not sure when the bus goes back. I zoom the photo I've just taken. That “small temple” is actually a three or four storey building.....

…..the trip (literally on the snow covered walk back to the bus from the cable car) down the mountain & back into the cloudy, grey base of Emei Shan is largely spent sleeping. I think the rarified air has had a dramatic effect on all the travellers, a busload of sleeping heads, like a collection of inverted pendulums ticking off the bends as we negotiate the hairpin road to the bottom. It's followed by another commendable effort by the caterers at a late, (3pm), lunch in competition with yesterday's rice & cabbage speciality restaurant to see how cheaply this busload of tourists can be fed. Everyone is wondering just how low the bottom line can go.....

…..not only are individual Buddhist places of worship spread over large areas, with numerous temples, pagodas, shrines & sculptures linked by gardens, paths &, inevitably, steps. Around an important site like Emei Shan others usually see fit to build their own temples there. Altogether, in this immediate area, there are thirty three temples, at various levels on the mountain. We visit one more, not, of course, as spectacular as the main attraction on the peak & TFS has by now set in. That's Temple Fatigue Syndrome for those not accustomed to such intensive, step-rich environments.....

…..back to the Ru Jia, (Home Inn), in Chengdu & Chinese New Year's Eve. It's my day of rest. I normally never stay in bed later than 8am but today I study Chinese, eat fast noodles (the Sichuan hot ones), & drink milk tea. Despite the sounds of the Blitz outside & constant explosions setting off car alarms I sleep in between. The Chinese invented gunpowder & want everyone to know it. I poke the camera out of the window near midnight to get a short video of the escalating racket, then go back to bed.....

…..efforts to get to the Panda Research Centre, several kilometres out of Chengdu go well, getting off the number 27 on the first ring road at the correct spot & eventually, with some effort, finding the number 902 bus stop with convenient confirmation in English at the bottom of the timetable that the terminal stop is indeed the Research Centre. I guess it's a little ambitious expecting to get there on New Year's Day. After waiting forty five minutes I decide to get the bus that goes to the zoo, also conveniently noted in English.....

…..Chengdu zoo is large &, in typically Chinese fashion, has a Buddhist temple in the middle. It's sadly an old-style zoo, lots of small, plain, concrete cages. The only concession to modernity seems to be the steel bars are being replaced by glass, which, being accessible to so many noses to be pressed against it, doesn't generally present a clear view. Apologies for the grainy image of the panda. With most of China on holiday & a large portion of the population of Chengdu at the zoo it's just as interesting watching the zoo visitors as the animals, easier as anything not sleeping or huddling round the incongruous, circular radiant heaters is surrounded by a crowd of hundreds. Being twice the height of the average native of Sichuan is a definite advantage. The prize for the photo most in need of explanation, & least likely to get one, is the man at a table in the catering area receiving some sort of ear treatment, or possibly a cranial irrigation, from another guy who, from his outfit, could be either an amateur medical practitioner or a passing miner.....

…..it's not all that easy, especially near the New Year, with most small businesses being closed, to find somewhere to eat that's not Huoguo (Hotpot). It's OK, I like hotpot, though eventually I do find a more “conventional” place, before visiting the museum, partly to give my stomach a break from the “ma” or “numb” spice. It's certainly not a flashy restaurant but it's well patronised & the food is fantastic, (& cheap). There is some truth in the contention that the spices they use are so strong that a lot of things that end up in hotpot end up tasting very similar! It must be safe too as there are not many bacteria that could survive it but don't quote me on that.....

…..I probably didn't see Chengdu at its best, being winter & Chinese New Year combined. There is a lot more to see in Sichuan so maybe another trip is called for, in a different season. As for the trip back to Yangzhou, the train goes the pretty way, north-east through Xi'an then loops back down to Taizhou, then the end of the line, Yangzhou. After most of the other cities I visit in China Yangzhou really does look small, despite having a population comparable to Sydney & probably double that of that great conurbation of the West Midlands in England, (including Birmingham, Wolverhampton & several other cities). Some say that in a deprecatory way but it's a relief & very homely after the bigger, more crowded cities. After a thirty two hour trip, arriving in Yangzhou at 6.30am, the journey down Wenchang road on the bus feels like coming home to my little village.....

…..not much of note on the train journey, the usual hard sleeper configuration, the bottom bunk being a little, (not much), more but allowing more space & prime spot for the little table near the window between the bunks. Others either have their cramped upper bunks or the 2 tiny flip down seats in a corridor less than a metre wide. There is the old Chinese guy in the middle bunk above me. In the morning he is sitting on the opposite bunk. I smile & say, “Zaoshang hao” (“Good morning”). He points to me then to his head. I assume he's asking if I have enough room, being very tall by Chinese standards. “No problem...” He continues to point. I can't understand what he's saying, it doesn't sound like words at all. He then gets out a throat tube, some sort of speaking device for someone who has had a serious throat operation. No, I can't understand Steven Hawking's Chinese either. After more frenzied pointing I finally look round. His toupee has fallen down the side of his bunk & is right behind me. I consider euthanasia a preferable option to a toupee but he is very happy to get it back.....

…..I forgot to mention last week the best restaurant name in Guiyang; a pork restaurant, “Tian Tian Sha Zhu”, (Every Day Kill Pig). On the way to Leshan there is the more enigmatic “Dam Tofu Ecology Fish Restaurant”.....

…..off to Shanghai this week to renew my passport, but that's another story, (for another week).....

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Photos

Emei Shan, Sichuan
The amazing statue against a perfect sky

Chengdu, Sichuan
Old & New, (new TV tower on the right).

Museum, Chengdu, Sichuan
Figurine from a Tomb

Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang Museum, Chengdu
One of the best known characters from the battle of Red Cliff

Da Fo, Leshan, Sichuan
Da Fo, or Great Buddha, 71m high, carved from a sandstone cliff overlooking 3 rivers

Da Fo, Leshan, Sichuan
The steps, on the far side of the Great Buddha's left foot

Grotto, Leshan, Sichuan
Carved from the wall of the cave hacked out of the sandstone at Leshan

Wood Museum, near Leshan, Sichuan
Some of the 500 life size ebony statues of the Buddha's disciples

Emei Shan, Sichuan
A squirrel on one of Chinese Buddhism's 4 most important sites

Emei Shan, Sichuan
Looking down at the mountains

Emei Shan, Sichuan
The 3 (or 4?) storey temple just visible on the peak

Emei Shan, Sichuan
Temple & statue

Confectionery, Chengdu, Sichuan
Too good to eat

Chengdu, Sichuan
Fried sparrows

Hotpot, Chengdu, Sichuan
Mild on the inside, Ma-La (Numb-Hot) in the outside

Comments

[Tony]

Love the craftsmen
Ha Ha!... Love the craftsmen parables Dave.

[Laotou]

The only way...
Hi Tony, I only just discovered some comments people have made - & I thought no one read 'em! You'd love some of the craftsmanship too, I reckon you'd really appreciate it.

[Laotou]

Only once
Hi Jeff, sorry for the tardy reply, I only just discovered the comments! I only tried durian once & it was foul.... nearly as bad as baijiu...