We woke up really, really, really early- well early for people who didn’t usually have to start for work until two in the afternoon on Wednesday in order to join a travel group on a bus around the Taoist temples in the Chengdu area. We were picked up by the bus at 6:10 and then spent the next hour picking up our fellow travelers around the city.
It rained throughout the morning. Our first stop was one of the tallest Taoist tours in the world. It was damaged in an earthquake in 2008 so people are not allowed go inside it anymore. Then, we had a little lesson in fueng suai, which is an important element in Taoism. It’s not so fun being the only person who can’t understand what the tour guide is saying. I was able to call back a little memory of the religion from studying world religions in college and reading The Tao of Poo and The Chi of Piglet. Cindy and Joyce would paraphrase a few key ideas for me, but I ended up missing a lot and wandered a bit on my own. I have been spoiled living in Beijing all year where most of the museums and tourist spots usually have English below the Mandarin.
Then, we were back on a bus to travel to the areas largest damn. Cindy and Joyce spent the time at the damn upset with the tour guide because she didn’t give us a chance to stop for a snack or go to the bathroom. The best part of the park was there are suspension bridges that you can walk across which were like a wild ride. I went across them a few times…. There was also a beautiful Taoist temple up on a hill that we were able to visit.
We stopped for lunch provided by the tour guide in a whole in the wall place. The food was not good and the place was not very clean. Little did I know that there would be a lot of meals like that in my future very soon! We then spent the afternoon in a forest that is the home to one of the oldest Taoist temples in all of China. It was such a joy to be in a beautiful forest. Cindy had never been in a forest like that before and it made me more grateful for the all the weeks I’ve lived in the forest in Oregon. I took in everything- the clean air, the beautiful trees and the sound of birds- something you rarely ever hear in Beijing unless you seek out a quiet place. The climb to the top was rough, but we were the only ones from our bus that made it to the top! I left the forest really sad to go. I also didn’t realize then all the beautiful places I would be seeing very shortly.
We went back to the hotel to make our next plans for our trip. We were planning on traveling more South, but the forecast called for lots of rain and some flooding in the area we were planning to travel to. Instead, we were able to book a travel tour group in Yunnan. Joyce got on the phone with another friend who was able to book us flights for the next morning. There was a huge debate over the name to put on my ticket. We tried to pack up as much as we could to prepare for another early morning!
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