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Published: September 28th 2012
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Sept. 27
We're starting to get used to lima beans, bok choy and sweet potatoes at breakfast. As long as I also get my beloved cereal I'm happy! Today we started with (after the obligatory hour-long traffic tie-up) a factory tour, our second, actually. Yesterday we went to a cloisonne factory (enamel painted onto copper vessels), and today a silk carpet factory with the wonderful name of "Biejing No. 1 Carpet Factory." At both, the skills exhibited by the workers are phenomenal, but the crafts may be dying out as young people prefer to work in offices now. We are strongly encouraged to buy what we see, of course. In fact each of us seems to be followed by his own personal "minder" when we go into the showroom at the end of the tour, and much information is forthcoming should we show the slightest bit of interest in any item. Sorry, folks at home; we resisted. No Christmas presents from here. A silk "carpet" (actually wall hanging) that was about 1 X 2 feet cost $6800, which is probably reasonable since it contained 7000 hand-tied knots per square inch and took several months to make.
Then on to
a Lama (Buddhist) temple. This was very much an active temple with many worshippers offering incense and prayers at altars in front of any of about 20 figures of Buddha in several buildings scattered around a walled courtyard. There was an odd mix of worshippers and observers, and cameras were allowed and in fact were much in use by Chinese and foreigners alike. There was no organized service going on, just a lot of people doing their own thing. We thought it was pretty amusing that here where we were practically choking on incense was the only place in Beijing where we had seen No Smoking signs.
We read that in China Buddhism may be the most common religion. Official government numbers put it at 60,000 practitioners, but that counts only the monks. Lay believers must number in the many millions. I was surprised to learn that one cannot be a member of the communist party here if you practice any religion. The party is explicitly atheist, so you have to agree to that philosophy to join, and you would have to drop out of the party to attend any religious services or to pray openly. The party is
more than just a political organization. Christianity is growing not so much among the population at large as among intellectuals and the highly educated. Sort of the opposite of the US and Europe. It will be interesting to see what this means for the future in terms of international Christian leadership.
Our afternoon was spent at the Beijing Summer Palace - not so great a palace but gorgeous gardens around a lake that attracted the emperor and empress during the hot summer months. I am ashamed to admit that I kept thinking we were in Epcot Center! Then more traffic, which left us only 40 minutes for dinner if we were to make our acrobatic performance. Fortunately, we got there on time and enjoyed the jugglers, contortionists, pole climbers, and demonstrations of just how many young women can fit onto a bicycle at one time. Very impressive. As one person in our group said upon leaving, "Wow, and to think that I can hardly manage to walk up the steps to the bus!"
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