Bathing Optional

China (Central and Eastern) : March 2003

Continents

Continents

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Chengdu, the capital of what otherwise is the remote and isolated province of Sichuan, surprised us by its size, sprawl, and pollution. We have no photos of the unattractive city itself. Instead, we visited some great temples in and around the city.
Giant incense urn on temple grounds.
A closer look at that urn.
Fallen incense sticks at the base of the urn.
Ashe by temple prayer candles.
Temple roofline.
The second of the temples we visited in the Chengdu vicinity.
Temple lantern and incense smoke.
Temple blossoms.
Temple facade.
Going through the rituals.
Dark temple facade.
Temple lion guardian with blossoms.
View of temple garden.
Unique temple colors.
Chongqing surprised us -- it was an ultra-modern pocket of buildings in an otherwise undeveloped, polluted, and ramshackle part of China.
Some urban contrast in Chongqings downtown.
Artist pausing to think about the next step.
View from Chongqings modern center across the river to its incredibly dirty and rundown suburbs.
Yangtze River riverbank scenery with our Three Gorges cruise ship in the background.
View from the back of our boat as we passed through a portion of the Three Gorges.
Janani and Ashe preparing for the worst...
View of the banks of the Yangtze River from our boat.
Interesting temple built into the rocks we saw from our boat.
Our only real stop during the Three Gorges cruise was at a small town that is being completely demolished and relocated in preparation for the flooding that will occur in this area once the Three Gorges Dam Project is complete.
Us lounging in the rubble of the Yangtze town under demolition.
Janani, Ashe, Maciej, miscellaneous construction worker, Gessy and Three Gorges scenery beyond.
All of us trying to create some kind of construction-related pose with the shell of a town behind us.
More back-breaking labor.
A group of locals destined for re-location sit around their courtyard.
An old lady looks down upon her hometown under demolition.
View down on our boat and Three Gorges scenery.
Not only is the government destroying hundreds of villages which will be flooded along the Yangtze River when the Dam is complete, but they are also getting the poor villagers to do the work themselves.
Another local taking a momentary break from the hard work of destroying his hometown.
Locals playing some Chinese chess.
Old man observing all the activity below.
Hollowed out homes in the village under demolition.
Another old-timer watching the destruction below.
And another.
Not much for these men to do but watch.
Final shot of another old man sitting amongst the rubble of what used to be his town.
Xian (no, we didnt go see the Terracota Warriors) is an interesting city with great historic center and good mix of people including a lively Muslim quarter.
View to Xians old city gates at twilight.
Evening view of Xians immense central bell tower.
Streetside game of Chinese chess.
Streetside game of mahjong -- oh, how we longed to get into the thick of this!
Old man in Xians Muslim quarter.
As usual, we couldnt leave Xian without visiting a local temple. Here, a small statue sits at the end of the bridge we had to cross to arrive at the temple building.
Statue inside one of Xians Taoist temples.
Stampede! Our departure from Xian was an unbelievable scramble to board this train followed by a ride in the most packed train weve ever been on or imagined.
Following Xian, we made a stop at a more rural and quiet place. Pingyao is one of Chinas best-preserved walled cities from the Ming era. Things inside the old city walls were pretty quiet.
Donkey by one of Pingyaos gates.
Old man walking the quiet, almost deserted streets of Pingyao.
Pingyao was seriously lacking young blood.
More locals on a Pingyao street corner. Great Mao jacket on the right.
Another full Mao outfit on this very happy old man.
One of Pingyaos many historic towers.
One of the less beautiful sights in historic Pingyao. This is the entrance to the public bathroom. I guess it hasnt been cleaned in some time...
And heres that same public bathroom inside... Awful.
Father Lenin. We found old posters like these of Communist greats posted on the pillars at an old, abandoned school in Pingyao.
Cant have Communist portraits up without Marx.
View over old Pingyao.
One final view over deserted Pingyao at sunset.
Hidden away in the mountains of Shaanxi and not so far from Beijing is Wutai Shan, a holy Buddhist monastery town and retreat. Due to its mountainous location, Wutai Shan escaped relatively unscathed during the Cultural Revolution so its monasteries maintain an authentic feel and the buildings are full of history.
View of Wutai Shans center. There are literally dozens of individual monasteries making up this fully Buddhist town.
Prayer wheel at one of the many temple buildings.
Snowy scenes in Wutai Shan.
Temple urn.
Snowy guardian and steps.
Inside one of Wutai Shans temples.
Temple courtyard.
View over one of Wutai Shans temple compounds.
Little red door.
More prayer wheels.
Monk statues in one of Wutai Shans larger temple buildings.
Giant seated Buddha.
Another of Wutai Shans larger temple complexes with bronze pagoda at right.
Bronze Buddha figure inside the bronze pagoda.
More snowy temple roofs.
Temple steps.
Icicles.
Us at one of the more deserted hillside temples in Wutai Shan.
Ashe spinning prayer wheels.
Prayer wheels.
Golden Buddha with dragon peering around its shoulder.
Smoky temple incense.
Buddha with amazing wood carvings behind.
More amazing wood carvings with Buddha figure.
While at Wutai Shan we saw a group of Red Army soldiers there for some cultural sensitivity training. The Communist government is trying to make up for the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution by training their soldiers and administrators to be sensitive to religion, culture, and history.
Still on our way to Beijing we stopped in the incredibly polluted coal town of Datong. Our destination were these famous Buddhist grottoes nearby.
Some of the original grottoes cut deep into solid rock.
Buddhist images in the stone, inside and out.
Large Buddha image inside one of the grottoes.
Another big one.
The color hadnt faded on all the carvings.
A little help.
More detailed carvings inside one of the deeper grottoes.
View through grotto entrance.
One of the more impressively preserved of Datongs grotto images.
Another colorful scene.
Ancient pillars and carvings beyond.
Great Buddha image deep inside one of the grottoes.
Pair of bodhisattvas.
Colorful wall inside one of the grottoes.
One final big guy.
A final one of use in front of one of the hundred or more unique grottoes at Datong.
Finally in Beijing and once there there seems to be no better place to start than Tianamen Square.
On the right, the base of the giant Mausoleum to Mao.
Red Guard in Tianamen Square.
Crowds at the main gate to Beijings Forbidden City.
Giant painting of Mao over the gate entrance.
Things are more quiet once inside the Forbidden City.
Elaborate staircases inside the Forbidden City.
Palace door.
Bronze statue.
Us somewhere in the Forbidden City.
View over the Forbidden City and Beijing.
Maciej with Confucius statue at one of Beijings head Confucian Temples.
Interesting bridge at one of Beijings many temples.
Misty views at the Summer Palace.
Palace urn and walls at the Summer Palace.
Summer Palace tree with Palace.
The Fragrant Pagoda on the hill and overlooking the lake at the Summer Palace.
Closer view of the Pagoda.
View over the far side of the Summer Palace hill.
The main temple complex on the far side of the Summer Palace hill.
Buddhas whose heads were chipped away during the Cultural Revolution.
Another misty view down over the temples.
The main Palace buildings with Fragrant Pagoda above at the Summer Palace.
Long walking bridge at the Summer Palace.
From Beijing we took a day trip out to one of the more remote stretches of the Great Wall and despite the snow, we walked a 10km. stretch.
Great Wall steps.
More Great Wall steps.
Ashe on the Great Wall.
Stretched out over the hilltops.
Us with the Great Wall stretching far into the distance.
One final look at the Great Wall of China.
Canalside view in Nanjing.
Local seniors taking their birds out for the day in Nanjing.
Suzhou is traditionally known as one of the the three heavenly cities near Shanghai and due to its many canals also often called the Venice of the East. You be the judge.
View at one of Suzhous more famous Chinese gardens.
We knew wed be living in style when we arrived in Shanghai. This is the entrance area to our friend Dans apartment where we stayed for our few days in Shanghai.
Shanghai was a huge change from most of the rest of China.
One of many ultra-modern skyscrapers piercing Shanghais skies.
Part of Shanghais skyline across the river.
Ashe in a small city park in central Shanghai.
The Oriental Pearl Tower between a couple other of Shanghais buildings.
View down Shanghais famous Nanjing Road.
View down Nanjing Road in the other direction where it is closed off to traffic.
Another view of the Oriental Pearl Tower.
Us along Shanghais Bund with the Oriental Pearl Tower behind us.
Urban contrast between Shanghais new buildings and the historic British buildings along the Bund.
Just a small part of Shanghais ironic Chinatown.
View down the Bund.
Neon chaos along Shanghais Nanjing Road at night.
Ashe looking out over the lights of Shanghai.

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