Around Chengdu

The last couple of days I have probably walked about 10-12 miles around the city! Two days ago I went on a walk with a guy from Holland named Eric trying to find the Wall-mart Superstore and we probably ended up walking between 6 and 8 miles in which most of it was in the wrong direction! I got to see a lot of Chengdu and we ate lunch at KFC (don't judge me!). We ended up running into the Canadian couple I went to the Giant Buddha of Leshan with and together we all managed to find it. It is interesting how exciting it is to see things that are familiar even if they are places I almost never frequent in the states. I got really excited when I saw a bag of Cheetos in a guy's bag that was walking down the street but then when we finally got there and I was in the chip isle I saw that they are like all of the other chips here that have familiar brands (they put interesting flavors on the chips like roasted chicken, pork, etc.) I did buy some flip flops for $4 because the sandals I bought from REI before I left destroyed my feet the first day I wore them and I ended up leaving them in Beijing because I was not going to wear them again on my trip. Yesterday I got up and walked to the famous daoist temple here in Chengdu called Qingyang Temple or Green Ram Temple.

"The Green Ram Temple, otherwise known as Qingyang Temple, is one of the most famous Taoist temples in China. The temple was originally built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a period when Taoism was flourishing. Most of the parts of the temple that remain in existence are restorations from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), including Sanqing Hall, Doulao Hall, Hunyuan Palace, the Eight Trigrams Pavilion, and Wuji Palace.

The most magnificent of these buildings is the Eight Trigrams Pavilion. Built on square foundations, with a colored glazed dome on top, this octagonal building reflects the ancient Chinese philosophy that "the sky is round and the earth is square". There are eight pillars with dragons drawn in relief in the corridor, and colorful caissons and the symbols of eight trigrams are ornately arranged across its ceiling.

Beside the altar of Sanqing Hall stand two eye-catching bronze goats, which were said to be taken from Beijing during the Qing Dynasty. One of the goats is actually a strange creature with a mouse's ears, an ox's nose, a tiger's claw, a rabbit's mouth, a dragon's horns, a snake's tail, a horse's face, a goat's beard, a monkey's neck, a chicken's eyes, a dog's belly and a pig's thighs.

Why is the temple called Green Ram Temple? Well it all went back to a meeting between a Taoist high priest called Lao-tzu who was to meet a friend here. The friend arrived only to see a boy with two goats and so thought the boy was his friend the priest!"

I stopped and had some tea in the tea house and a Chinese man asked me to sit with him. We had a very brief conversation because he didn't speak English and I speak very little Chinese. I took pictures of my walk through the temple and will upload them in my next post. Here though are pictures from my walking about in Chengdu. Included is the Peoples Park which is one of the major parks in the city.