Visiting Cindy in Mainland China
June/July 1987
Our first stop in Nanjing the next day was Sun Yat Sen's Musolium. It had many steps leading up to an impressive wide pagoda at the top.
Next was the Lin Gu Temple Complex. Little children loved to ride on the life sized animal statues.
Ming Emperor's Tomb was next. Many double statues of camels line the road into it. Inside is a large pagoda and lagoon.
The East Gate of Nanjing has many wide walls over the arched tunnel leading through them.
On the streets of Nanjing, I saw several examples of Chinese hard
at work. One was two ladies pulling carts expertly balanced and highly loaded
with bundles of supplies. The other was two men calmly riding their bicycles
both carrying large rolled-up green carpets, the rolls extending probably ten
feet over their heads, but still maintaining perfect balance! Our last stop
in Nanjing was a Confucian Temple.
Two bikers balancing carpet rolls ten feet over their heads!
After that, we flew to Chengdu where my friend Cindy was living. We saw a large statue of Mao there
on our way to the Temple of Precious Light.
After that, we saw many panda bears at the Chengdu zoo, and a beautiful garden.
I had made previous arrangements to leave the tour group for an
afternoon and evening in Chengdu so I could visit Cindy and her family.
Cindy, her son, husband, mother, and nephew
I went to her house on one of China's many large tricycle cabs. By this time, my Chinese was fluent enough from a year at Northwestern plus several weeks in China on this tour, that I could direct the cab driver perfectly to Cindy's house. There I met Cindy, her husband, her mother, her son, and her nephew. We had a very nice meal together. Since our tour leader, Fred Drake, insisted that we all use chopsticks at every Chinese restaurant we visited, I was in excellent practice using them by the time I ate with Cindy and her family. She kept trying to speak in English, but since she had spoken in English while she was staying with us in the US, I insisted that we speak Chinese while I was staying with them in China. Her young nephew liked to ride on my shoulders.
They arranged for much easier transportation for me back to my tour group in
Chengdu.
Our tour's next stop was the Giant Buddha of Leshan. This is the
largest Buddha statue in the world which is carved directly out of the solid
rock on one side of a steep canyon. To get a rough idea of how large he is,
when I stood right next to one of his toes, the toenail came right up to my
waist!
Giant Buddha of Leshan carved out of the side of a hill with stairs leading down and me by his toe