June 26, '06

June 26, ‘06

Toured the Botanical Gardens and thought Elaine and Frosty would enjoy it. There is a Temple of the Reclining Buddha from Tang Dynasty (1,300 years ago) and a Buddha statue from the first year of the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty 14th century. The site was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and has been restored. In one of the side temple buildings you could see through the windows statues being formed out of what looked like sticks and mud or clay.

Of interest only to myself was a memorial to Liang Qiqao a political activist under the late Qing Dynasty who lasted into the early Republican period. The memorial was not as well kept as I thought it might be. I wonder if he was eclipsed by history.

There is a huge conservatory on the grounds and the Academy of Sciences has a Botanical Institute nearby but not on this site.

Had to walk twenty minutes uphill to get to Fragrant Hills garden. We chose not to hike to the top and take the chair lift back, but to take the lift up and walk down. It took a strenuous forty minutes to get down on steps which were sometimes steep. I thought it would take us much longer. Others elected to take the lift back down. So we hikers came back to the entrance soaked in sweat. The lift ride up was really spectacular because of the view. However, despite last night’s rain (and the rain the night before) the smog obscured the view. As we climbed down we noticed some Chinese trying to run up the steps, other negotiating them barefooted.

Our guide, a small and wiry fellow who traipsed down the steps like a goat, has spent three months at Cal Poly Pomona. He now wants to do an undergraduate year at ETSU. Met another Chinese student before we left the hotel this morning who studied at Pomona, and she even sounded like a Valley Girl. Chinese students who wind up in California are grateful for the Asian population already there so they can get Chinese food. They tire of American food. However, probably not as much as some of our Tennessee students who have learned to order “Western steak” at the Japanese restaurant on campus. On shopping expeditions some of the students have found Pizza Hut or Outback, as well as MacDonald’s.

Dinner with the vice president who welcomed us when we first arrived. He is Korean by origin and his family came to China in 1940. Hangzhou-style restaurant. Kidney (a specialty of the house), two different fish, cucumber and pear in lemon sauce, duck, steamed bread in the shape of a clam shell that you open up and stuff with meat, a couple of soups, stuffed tofu and rice noodles, etc.