Baolin Temple

Hello again! I'm here to catch up on my Dragon Boat Festival weekend:) This holiday is kind of the Chinese summer solstice festival. It takes place in June usually and is marked by dragon boat racing and eating zongzi (sticky rice with nuts, pork, or beans inside). 

I think the story goes that a famous poet died... and then there was a boat race to retrieve his corpse from whatever remote hermitage he was hiding out at? I could be all wrong...There's also a ton of different stories surrounding this holiday I believe...

It was a three day weekend from work for everyone, but I had just gotten here so I went to some local places of interest... nothing fancy.

Some dragon boat artwork outside my building:)

For my day off I decided to check out Baolin Temple. I took the bus, and it was a-ways away so it was a long ride. But I really like traveling by bus. You get to see so much city and industry and people in their daily life... I just enjoy it.

This was the first golden Buddha. He was flanked by all these magnificent statues. 

This temple was set up on a mountain so it wound up and up and up which was really cool. I loved all the plants. 

Cool dragon- pole thing.

Many, many Buddhas. 

I'm not sure what the heart locks were for, but they were pretty cute. 

So many turtles!

I still love wishing trees.

Awesome dragon carving-thing...

I also love these trees. 

The view just kept getting better the higher you went up the temple.

Ancient turtle god worship as usual.

After the temple I went next door to a big, expansive park. It's one of the biggest parks I've been to so far. It had tons of water too, and I thought they might be racing dragon boats? But maybe I came on the wrong day because I didn't see any. 

A house I'd like to buy one day that was literally next to the water on the park. 

At the end of the park it said there was a temple called, The Dragon Mother's temple. I was intrigued so I walked forever to get there, but when I finally arrived, it was kind of a let down. I think you should probably not start with all the impressiveness of Baolin before going here. 

There were some actual monks doing some chanting and bell chiming which was cool, but I also felt kind of intrusive so I didn't stay long. 

That was Baolin. I'd definitely go again, but I think next time I'd pack more food. There weren't a ton of places to eat around the temple so by the time my long bus ride got me back to Foshan I was starving :/ Well, live and learn. 

World of Flowers

Hello world! I was away on a trip last weekend, so no post. Sorry about that. But that means I'll tell you all about it later. 

Still, I want to catch up on some other places I ran off to my first weeks here. 

This time: The World of Flowers. 

If you know me at all, you know I have an appreciation for plants of all kinds. So when I was researching Foshan and discovered a place called The World of Flowers was nearby, it was one of the first markers I went to.

Unfortunately, the World of Flowers was not what I expected it to be. I think, I was relying on it's name, so I felt there must be a lot of flowers here. In reality, there were quite a lot of plants, greenhouses, trees, bonsai, and shrubbery, but not many flowers.

There were a few flowers you could buy, but if I had to guess, I think The World of Flowers is meant for professional landscapers/gardeners/city planners? It was pretty much a ghost town the whole time I was there. Just a lot of crewmen looking people, and industrial trucks. But that did mean, I kind of had the place to myself, which was nice.

(Although this tree was definitely worth the visit on it's own.) What a spectacle of color!

A productive mandarin orange tree! Look at all that produce:)

The World of Flowers was also home to many artisan works of stone, ceramic, wood, and other material. This was just one table I really admired. 

A dragon sculpted shrub! Wow. 

Yikes. Those vegetable-looking things freaked me out.

This was part of a huge research facility and cultivating area (I think) on bonsai trees. It was enormous and the bonsai were beautiful. 

So that was The World of Flowers. I don't know if I'd recommend it... but if you're in the mood to see a lot of plants and greenhouses, you might enjoy it:) 

At the end of my little tour, I got myself a house-warming gift and friend. My maiden-hair fern. It's doing alright, but seems to be drying up somewhat in this insane summer heat:/ Hopefully we both survive. 

Thanks as always for tuning in! See you next week.