Coal

Nuages de Monde, et cetera

Oct 7, 03:31 Travel

How in the world did both Aaron and I miss this.

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Dr. Tim Perry makes his way into the pages of First Things.

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I am back from Chengdu (a link with pictures and anecdotal accompaniment to follow shortly). My itinerary and experiences, very briefly, included:

~A train trip involving a Chinese card game and a vanishing act among new friends: 40RMB straight from my wallet.

~Being put up at a hotel along with a wedding party of which I was not a part. I didn’t like this arrangement, since I felt I had no business there, but there was really no way to refuse. This also included taking part in a large meal among the groom’s and bride’s friends and family.

~A overnight trip to Emeishan, one of China four major Buddhist mountains. This included the visiting of various temples, and monkeys, on the way up and down.

~A visit to the Panda Breeding Reserve in Chengdu – the only successful Great Panda breedery in the world.

~The fantastic spectacle that is Sichuan Opera, along with an pre-show massage.

~A lengthly visit to the Dufu Thatched Hut museum, home of the Tang dynasty poet Dufu, and a number of other interesting pieces of Chinese history and artlore. This may not sound that interesting, but entry was rather expensive, I did it because I had time to kill one day, and it was one of the favourite parts of my trip.

~Meeting and speaking with various people from around the world, including a Belgian, Germans, Frenchpersons, Englishpersons, an Irish friend I trained with in Xian, the people I was supposed to teach with in Xianyang, Chinese people from Chengdu, Beijing, Chongqing, and sundry parts China, a hispanic American teaching English in a deep Tibetan Monastery (who offered me a job – such jobs are, apparently, everywhere), and others. One of the most interesting couples were an Australian and New Zealander who had lived in London for the last 9 years, and were now traveling the Eastern continent on their way home. They had already done Cairo to Cape Town and St. Petersberg to Beijing. They had to hurry out of China, though, due to Visa related complications – of which there were many, and of which I too was subject. Luckily it all turned out all right in the end, and I only lost a few extra yuan in the process.

All told, Chengdu is a tourist city, and a great time despite and in part because of that. There are plenty of things to do in Sichuan province, most of which I have yet to do. I would like to re-ascend Emeishan in better weather, and I neglected to visit the world’s largest Buddha at nearby Leshan.

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Science and aesthetics collide in the form of String Theory?

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Krista Tippett continues to offer up what appear to be a very interesting series of podcasts. (I haven’t begun listening yet, but they include issues on religion in Mao’s China, faith heroes from the world religions, perspectives on homosexuality, and so on).

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Finally, I have already been listening to Ravi Zacharias’ podcasts, entitled, “Let My People Think”. I particularly recommend the pair on Secularization.