Cable car to the middle path


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Asia » China » Shanghai
October 9th 2005
Published: October 9th 2005
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Up early and breakfast in the hotel.It is paid for and waiting for us all at the appointed hour.Large bowl of a bland tasting rice porrage,unknown vegetable of a pale palour,cooked greens served at room temperature and fermented bean curd.Mushy taste and foul odor.A couple of kinds of steamed buns,noodles and broth and hot soy milk.The familiar boiled egg to round off the beige meal...yum yum. The culinary delights are punctuated by the cleaning of the fish tanks and tubs lying around the floor.:Lots of noise and activity.
Off we go then to visit the Puji Temple a beautiful Buddist temple set on the side of a small lake with huge lotus plants growing We have come to appreciate the lotus and were lucky to find a couple of them still in bloom though we have missed the truly spectacular beauty of their flowers by a few weeks. We have eaten lotus root prepared in various ways along our travels and found it very pleasing.
The temple was beautiful and the buddas spectacular. Many worshippers with incense praying and moving around the temples from statue to statue.Some of the incense is in large sticks and much thicker than what we have noticed before.After the temple we get onto a bus and head up the mountain to the base of the cable car running up to Huiji Temple.We along the path to the Temple we see a woman praying.She takes three steps then falls to the ground to prostrate herself then rising taking three steps and dropping down again.This has been repeated and will continue from the bottom of the mountain to the temple.Devotion and strength and beauty with this unexpected sight.
After descending and bussing back along the island we find ourselves with a free afternoon.Lunch is taken at a large restaurant looking over the China sea and again we meet and eat our lunch and again find the fish excellent and well prepared. The afternoon is sunny and hot and the beach seemed like a good idea so off we go.Slinky however is unclear on the notion of a free afternoon and comes with us, though not guiding.We enjoy the sand and sun and watch Chinese men and women frolicking.
Shower and a beverage then off to another more folksy restaurant for supper.The hat trick is complete with a large fish steamed and sauced along with some shrimps and vege's.A family sits near by, some women in pyjamas and a baby wandering.They sit on a wall and some kitchen chairs smoking spitting and getting on with life in China.
We spend a restless night sharing the hotel with the sounds of a team of drinking cardplaying vacationers.

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