China Day 1

Today we headed to the Dongyue temple. It was a pretty crazy looking place with statues everywhere and lots of gods and guardians. Most of the people in the group purchased prayer flags which were like red boxes with a message on them and a tassle that you hung in front of the giant statue that you felt spoke to you.

I asked for trust.

It was very cold today and everyone was seeking out sunbeams.

We are transported everywhere on this small bus that just barely holds all of us. Driving here is not as crazy as I thought it was going to be but I still wouldn't get behind the wheel. We were glad many times that we're in a big bus and not a little car. People use horns liberally as a hey I'm behind you, as well as a get the hell out of my way you jerk! It's pretty funny. There were many times that were were only inches away from contact of some kind with another vehicle, but for all of that I would actually say that the drivers here are pretty good.

I'm not sure how the diving is out in the country, but here is the big city it's ok.

I really enjoy the ancient Chinese architecture. I love the double pitched roofs and all the writing around all the entrances and doorways. I can't read a lot of it, but I am starting to catch more characters here and there. The Dongyue temple was very interesting in that they'd let you take all kind of pictures, but if you try to take pics in certain rooms of certain things than a woman sitting next to the stereotypical communist guard frantically waves her hands for you to stop.

That definitely gets my attention and makes me scared to take any more pics.
Another thing that's cool is the three Taoist masters that are hanging out with us. They are Shifu's disciples and they are very interesting. they don't speak much english, but in general seem happy to be with us and interested in teaching us things. They are supposed to be giving us some lessons during this trip, but I don't know when.



We were going around with Shifu into a number of the rooms and she told us that this temple is also a museum. There were a number of relics from before the Ming dynasty that didn't have dates because they were so old. She told us what some of them meant, but it didn't stick with me.


We left the temple for lunch back at the hotel and then headed back out to see some place that's getting renovated for the olympics. It wasn't finished enough and we were not allowed to go in.
All around this place was an open market. Te market only sold books. All the books looked pretty cool, but they were only in Chinese, very disappointing that none of us can read, although Bowen bought an herb book because it had goldfish in it.

After the market we were headed to another market so people could buy calligraphy sets and postcards but we were interrupted by a suspicious stop to a hotel because the driver had to go to the bathroom (so we were told) we were supposedly only stopping for tea, but tea turned into a bunch of people stopping by to give Shifu presents and talk with her and then next thing I knew a few people in the group had gotten sassy (or sick) and left to take a taxi back to the hoteland the rest of us found ourselves being served a never ending dinner and getting beer and this really strong nasty clear drink from a bunch of excited Chinese people. The food was really good though so most of us were pretty happy.
After dinner, we found out that the woman that was in the group at the restaurant was a special healer and had invited us to her clinic. She had brought a special patient of hers to the restaurant and had Shifu working on her the whole time we were eating. It was cool for her and for us, but Shifu never even got to eat. We felt bad, especially because we got lectured on the bus that we were embarrassing her by drinking, smoking, and being rowdy. Although, because of that, a Mongolian healer came out of the room that Shifu was in (in the restaurant) and sang a traditional Mongolian song to us. It was pretty cool.
We left the restaurant and went to this clinic which was open just for us (fully staffed) and most of us got treatments from this woman who diagnosed only by cupping us and poking our backs. I got told that my Liver Yang was flying out the top of my head and causing my feet to be too cold. I also was very angry on the inside and had Stomach - Spleen disharmony, weak digestion, and weak Kidney Qi. Nothing new there, although it's always kinda sad to hear that you're not in perfect health.

Just so everyone knows, I can not view this blog while in China. I can upload pictures and stories, but I can not see any comments or weirdness with formatting. Please email me any questions or comments or wait until I get back to Hawaii!

I will be uploading pictures soon too, although I'm still learning how to make pictures as beautiful as Dave with his camera... Some need a lot of help!