Howdy, all.
Okay, got to feeling a whole lot better, but didn't accomplish tonnes more in Chengdu other than seeing Le Shan Dafo (Great Buddha).
Started a Yangzi River cruise 3 days ago, from Chongqing. End point is Maoping, then tour of the Three Gorges Dam itself, then on to Wuhan for a day or 2. From there... I've had to adjust my plans given I clearly can't read map distances. I'll head NW and check out Wudang Shan, then go back to Wuhan and from there go SW to Guilin.
So far, so great. All is rockin', and the sights seen on this cruise have been good. Saw something Suzi, Jamie and Aaron would have loved: a temple dedicated to Hell. Crazy wax-work and clay depictions of really really nasty tortures, and lots of demon and spirit statues and iconography. Really cool. Like a door that is a demon's open mouth and buddhas and such holding skulls, or depicting devils and demons impaling mortals, etc. Loved it.
Went on a side-tour of the Three Gorges today, including a smaller mini-tour through a more narrow area. Saw a Ba coffin (wicked!) and beautiful scenery. Pretty amazing out here on the water. Well... I'm not on the water now. I'm land-side with a Chinese Canadian I've met. We're just catching up on internety thingies before catching a show, then back to the boat around 11pm.
So yeah... all is well. Up to around 300 pictures taken, with 700 more left on my 1gb card. I will be more liberal, though I still have... 11 more major stops. I've added Wenzhou and Hangzhou to the list, having emailed Joe (my former DoS) and Nick (former teacher). I'll be visiting them on my way up. It'll be fun to see Rudy. I have to say I've missed her wackiness around the Tangshan school. I just hope she doesn't cry again, though...
Okay, I'm off. Have fun, all, and I'll be seeing you in 1 month! (exactly 1 month)
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3 comments:
Devil temple, seeing coffins ... so you'd recommend this tour to your grandmother would you? :)
Glad you're having fun.
Andy
I read about the Ba coffins. There's been some interesting research done on them lately. Apparently for years the locals had forgotten what they actually were. I hope you got a picture for me.
Temples dedicated to hell? It almost sounds like some long forgotten Tibetan monastery or something. Where are the pictures? WHERE ARE THE PICTURES!!!!!!!
Uhmpf! Traveling backpackers! Making all sorts of excuses not to upload their pretty precious pictures...
Just don't lose that memory stick! Glad you are having fun!
Pascal
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