Calm Spirit / Ying Yu Jade China Trip 2009
Temple of Heaven Park in the Morning, More Shopping and Visiting with Friends
China has a lot of people, and China has a lot of jobs. Everywhere you turn, someone is working, whether it's cleaning up something, or pouring tea for you. It takes awhile to get used to the hovering. But it's nice to see so many people working, with jobs. And it's nice to see so many people who are retired "out" in the mornings for traditional and non traditional exercise. Charles and I went to Temple of Heaven Park. The exercise is traditional tai chi, qigong, as well as modern dancing, singing national songs
A variety of activities in the park in the morning
The men took their birds to the park, and are playing Chinese chess while their birds "air"
Much singing
Writing calligraphy with water is exercise and a qi practice
Older men take their birds in their cages for a walk, then hang them on trees while they play Chinese chess and gambling games
The trees were blooming, and people enjoy using trees for qi development as well as stretching and strength building
While Charles attended to his every growing business, we took a taxi to Silk Street, which isn't a street anymore, but a 7 floor building with electronics, jewelry, clothes, pearls, and of course silk items. It was difficult to choose items that would not be too heavy and fit in our luggage. That's a real challenge, because there's so much to buy! But if you go to Silk Street, the prices are very high, and the bargaining didn't go very low. We only purchased a few items for gifts, and later found out they were half the price of the bragained price in Guangzhou. I made a video at the Silk Street Market, but couldn't upload it to the Ying Yu Jade blog because some web sites were blocked by the government, and unfortunately it got erased and the photos I took there disappeared, too. Sorry!
Then we visited an international social center where Charles teaches kung
fu. Kung fu develops the large muscles of the body, and he wanted to have
his young students also develop their small muscles so started an art
and crafts program for his students. After his classes were finished,
we went to his restaurant for an excellent meal. It's in the middle of
nowhere, but amazingly popular with Western and Chinese people and is
always crowded with people waiting outside to get in. He certainly has
become a capitalistic entrepreneur, branched out his business, but applies
his philosophies of balance for body, mind and spirit to all his business
ventures.
Next:Going
to Guangzhou
China 2009 Home Page
