Jinli Street Shopping

This is a fun place to shop for souvenirs, get some coffee, eat TCBY treats, and have a delicious bass on a stick. The buildings are representations of traditional Chinese shops and the decorations are beautiful. I am amazed that the Chinese are so fond of delicious bass! I bought a Starbucks mug here for Chris Erickson. Here is Dell to tell you about the purses.

Well, this young lady was crocheting the most fabulous purses. Being a crotcheter myself, I can appreciate how much work goes into the construction. She has lining and a zipper to match. I'd have to charge $50 for my materials and time. Her price? $2.50!! I was amazed and bought out most of her stock ......

Dell and I are off to Tibet on the train in two hours! This will be my last post till next Friday. Until then,
J. Bob and Dell

Wuhou Shrine

Dell and I were sightseeing at the Wuhou Shrine today. The memorial temple, dignified and simple in style, houses 47 statues of Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and other civil officials and senior generals of the kingdom. The temple is furnished with many inscribed stone tablets, the most famous being the Tablet of Triple Success of the Tang dynasty (618 -- 907) with its text by Prime Minister Pei Du, calligraphy by Liu Gongchuo and carvings by Lu Jian.

The last picture is of a rock shop. All the stones you see on the wood shelves are for sale. They are beautiful! I wish I could ship some home but most weigh at least 50 pounds and some weigh as much as 500 pounds. Maybe Lee will pay for the shipping????? Can you find Dell in one of the photos?

Dell Hits The Sales!

You knew it was going to happen! I found out where the silk market was and J. Bob and I headed out this afternoon. Along the way I found some adorable red slippers which I am holding in the picture with the nice lady who helped me negotiate a sale. It was hard to find my size, but I managed to find a pair for 10 yuan (that's $1.25). Then it was on to the silk market where there were silk brocade jackets galore -- just what I was looking for! You can see the colors that are available! I bought the black one with the red Chinese pattern which I am trying on and the red one on the mannequin! Wow -- did I score big or what? They were on the sale rack for 108 yuan (that's $13.50). It's fun to shop the sales no matter where you are!

Bathuatan Pond Park

Yes! Another teahouse in the park. This teahouse had a fishing pond. The couple in the photo was in front of me at the teahouse. The girl would clap every time her boyfriend caught a fish. It was adorable. He caught five fish that were hand sized; they looked like perch or sunfish. The first photo is of a man in the pagoda reading the newspaper. The fourth is of the entrance to the park and the closup is a picture of a lotus leaf.

Dell Has Arrived!

Hi Everyone: I made it after 29 hours in transit! It really was a great trip and I met some very interesting fellow travelers. Two very nice Chinese guys -- Andy and Dennis -- helped me change planes in Shanghai as they were both going to Chengdu also. J. Bob and I were out and about today: first to the vegetable market, and then to Wenshu temple where we enjoyed the beautiful architecture and then had tea. Having tea seems to be the thing to do! Everyone brings their own snacks and they keep the hot water coming. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon (as you can see) and then walked home along a path beside the river. I'm making a list of all the things I want to do, so you'll hear more from me later....... Dell

Liberation Army

I went out to the antique market and got a really cool armband that says something similar to "university liberation army". I also picked up some Mao pins. The pins were $.65 each and the armband was $5.oo. I can get more if anyone is interested.

Quingyang Temple: Photos

The first picture is of one of the monks. This man looks very wise to me.

The second picture is of a pair of Brass goats. The story goes that Lao Tzu, the high priest of Taoism, asked a friend to meet him here. When the friend arrived he saw only a boy leading two goats on a leash. In a fabulous move of lateral thinking he realized the boy was Lao Tzu. According to this story, a Taoist palace was built there with the two symbolic bronze goats. Although called a goat, one of them is actually a strange creature with mouse ears, an ox nose, tiger paws, rabbit back, snake tail, dragon horns, horse mouth, goat beard, monkey neck, chicken eyes, dog belly and pig thighs. It was said that this goat has some supernatural powers and anyone who touches it will survive from illness and accident.

Burning incense is in the third picture and the fourth is of part of the palace grounds.

Quingyang Taoist Temple

Here I am at a teahouse on the temple grounds. This is the oldest Temple in Chengdu. It is in the Taoist tradition and was built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) BC. For the price of entry I received a free glass of herbal tea. As you can see there were some very interesting ingredients in the tea. I wish I could speak Chinese so I could ask what was in the glass. The tea was excellent! It was refilled whenever it got low. I stayed for about an hour and a half and read one of my trashy fantasy books.

The Grocery Store

Here are some of the food items in the grocery store that you don't see often in the states. Everything is very fresh and inviting. The first photo is of spice jars. I think the jars are very attractive. I think the second photo is of eels. Can anyone confirm? The third photo is of octopus. These are the ones no longer with Nemo. I don't know what the last picture is. It looks like it might have scales and could be fish. I just liked the pattern.

Get the wax out of your ears!

This was a rainy afternoon at the teahouse. Here is a common sight. There are always men walking around asking if you want to have your ears cleaned. They have a variety of metal rods with different shaped cloth pads/brushes on the end. The process takes about 15 minutes. I am not going to try this. I just can't bring myself to have metal rods pushed in my ears. I asked several of my colleagues and they have never tried it either. Still, it is popular at the teahouse.

Downtown Chengdu

Greetings from downtown,
In the top photo you can see a panda sculpture above my right shoulder. The second photo shows the heart of the downtown area. Notice there are no bikes or cars. There is a huge area where it is open to pedestrians only. It is very nice not to be dodging all the bikes and cars! The third photo is of a storefront. Notice the sign at the bottom is in English. I find it interesting that the sign is in English, why not in Chinese?

Zigong Dinosaur Museum

I had a wonderful trip today to the town of Zigong, which is about 140km south of Chengdu. This is one of the three best dinosaur museums in the world! They have discovered many new species and filled in the fossil record for middle Jurassic time. The museum is built over the fossil site and there is a huge open area in the center where you can view the excavations. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed. The first photo is of a 160 million year old delicious bass; the second is the dinosaur hall where they have some of the fossils from the excavation. What I found particularly exciting is that these are real fossils not reproductions. The third picture is of a living fossil!

The Office Gang

Here are some of the Senior 2 teachers I share an office with. My chair and desk are behind the date. In the top photo starting with the gentleman in the tie and moving clockwise the teachers are, Mr. Charlie Peng, Ms. Li, Ms. Liu, and Dr. Long. In the bottom picture from left to right are Stella Wu, Mr. Stone, Ms. Xu, Ms. Xia, Ms. Liu, and the ever-effervescent Christine

People's Park

Another lovely afternoon in the park! Yes I do work, but some days I don't have afternoon classes. The first picture is of people feeding delicious bass. The second is of people dancing; this was going on in many places in the park. There were also many places where people were singing karaoke. There were lots of fun things happening in the park. Some other activities were, kite flying, boating, mahjong, card playing, and relaxing at several lovely teahouses. The third picture is yours truly participating in the teahouse scene. Yes! Those are my tennis shoes again.

Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant

Michael and I are having a great dinner. We ordered rice with sweet pork, broccoli, and spiced chicken. The "chicken" was tofu and the "pork" was a brown sauce. They have a lot of "meat" items on the menu but it is all vegatarian flavored to look and taste like meat! This was a very scenic and relaxing end to the day. This weekend I plan to take the bus 120 km south to the city of Zigong and visit a dinosaur museum. The museum is built over the fossil site. Wish me luck; this should be a real adventure.

Relaxing at Wenshu Temple

Monday I spent the afternoon at a teahouse inside the grounds of Wenshu Temple. You can see my tennis shoes propped up on the chair. I had a good book and jasmine tea. The other picture is of a delicious bass.

Excellent 8A

8A rocks! These students are great, they always do excellent work and take pride in a job well done.

Red Pepper

Sichuan food is full of spice and here is the whole and ground red pepper. No food wimps allowed!