The next morning I awoke early enough to hear the wake up calls from the front desk approaching mine and Ian's room from down the hall. Room by room the rings grew louder, until the phone next to my head was ringing. I quickly grabbed the phone off the hook and jumped out of bed to get the first shower, so that I could get my first action packed day in China under way. Our group met up in the lobby of the hotel where we were once again greeted by Steve and his team of student guides to show us around the city for the day.
After some quick introductions, we were boarding the bus and heading to our first destination, which our guides explained as one of the most famous street vendor spots in the city , where we were able to grab some quick breakfast before a day full of Golden Buddha temples, exploring river-side parks and traditional Chinese structures, not to mention a huge lunch amongst several Chinese newly weds.
During the bus ride to our delicious street vendor breakfast, Mojo gets more acquainted with our student guides. All of whom were very interested in us, and curious about our initial reactions to their home country.
Sarah, Ana, and Elise show their excitement in their facial expressions as the Mojo group follows our Chinese guides to our breakfast destination.
Finally, our guides show the rumbling stomaches, and wandering eyes of the Mojo group to the entrance way of the vendor street, where our guides offer their services to help us find something to eat, and aid us through our first group purchase process in China.
I soon found myself stopped in my tracks by all the different options open to me, for my initial Chinese breakfast experience. Luckily, one of our guides, Paige, offered to help Sarah, Elise and I find some hot dry noodles which were recommended by a few Mojo'ers who had tried them at the noodle vendor on our walk the evening before.
Elise was certainly satisfied with the recommendation, as she expresses her delight at her chop stick skills.
Once we had our fill, it was "Mojo a go go" to our next destination, Which was the Temple of The Golden Buddhas. Here we got a chance to witness and take part in a small taste of Chinese religious culture, as we wandered through courtyards of the temple. I take a look around at all of my fellow classmates taking in as much of their experience as possible, shooting videos, photos, and interacting with the culture in any way possible.
Once we made it to the room where the golden buddhas were held, most of Mojo took this time to wander through the buddhas and find the one that would give them their fortune. After everyone had found their Buddha, the group wandered out of the temple to find a giant buddha statue, where we all felt it would be fitting to have our fortunes read off the the small golden cards by our tour guides.
Rob takes a few minutes to get some chill time with one of his favorite aspects of Chinese culture, the stone lions.
As we approach the temple, every person is given a few sticks of incense that are lit in small fire pits. We follow the lead of the Chinese and do a silent prayer and a few bows with the incense before sticking the sticks in the sand around the small flame, as is customary to do before entering the temple.
Here we join a large group of tourists in attempts to toss a few coins into a large metal sculpture for good luck and as an offering to the Buddhas.
A few short videos, shot with the nano.
Alex hard at work, capturing as much of this once in a lifetime experience as he can.
A massive Buddha looms in the center of the square, surrounded by souvenir shops and convenience store, giving me a glimpse into the past of what this square might have looked like when the statue was built.
Two of our Friendly student guides help to read the fortune on Steve's golden card from the temple.
After we had finished our tour of the temple we reunited with the bus to find our contact, Steve Wilmarth, fast asleep. We decided to let him sleep as we went into a local restaurant for lunch. As we walked through the plastic flaps it felt as if we all were welcomed guests to a huge party. There happened to be at least three weddings taking place at the restaurant, and we were each greeted by the brides at the door as we were escorted to our private room for lunch. None of us knew what to expect as we sat down around the huge lazy susan, as waitresses kept bringing dish after dish of foods we had never seen before. Though we were all eager to try some local food, we would ask our student guides what each food was before trying it.
Once lunch was finished and we had our fill of Sprite and Mao's favorite dish of fish, we were off again to a beautiful park on the bank of the Yangtze and a neighboring temple/ museum. The park was filled with magnificent statuary, and I got to check out a few Bonsai trees in the temple, one of my favorite aspects of Asian culture.
One of the many larger than life statues within the park, many times these statues would portray large intense dragons battling with massive Chinese warriors.
Kat and I check out a few duel bicycle-powered carts, which we could only assume are rented to couples who want to cruise the park a little faster than on foot.
Here, a huge intricately sculpted wall spans a large section of the park, portraying all sorts of different people and animals interacting with one another.
Rob kindly gives us some sense of scale in this image of yet another gigantic statue within the park.
Kat treks up the stairs to the temple museum with her camera at the ready.
Rob looks out over the Yangtze pensively, as he takes in everything around him, and thinks ahead to the remaining days that Mojo has on planet China.
On the way out of the temple, I catch a glimpse of a few Bonsai trees, which I first began appreciating this art form when we planted our own in my high school horticulture class.
As the Mojo group headed back to the bus to find our way to our final tourist destination for the day, I couldn't help but think to myself that this was the day that never ends. We were off to another museum to check out some thousand year of artifacts from an uncovered tomb, and listen to a live performance replicated bells and instruments from the buried tomb. This had to be one of my favorite cultural experiences of the entire trip. It was amazing to hear tradition Chinese music in the same way that it was most likely heard thousands of years ago, and felt almost as if we had all stepped back in time to witness this incredible performance.
Here's a shot of the empty set before the band entered the stage under some erie ambient lighting.
A traditional dancer in an elegant yellow dress gives us a glimpse into the past of traditional Chinese dance, backed by some replicated music of the time.
After a short visit to a few museum exhibits after the performance it was time, once again, to climb on the bus and head back to the high school to meet up with our home stay brothers and sisters. When Ian and I met up with our assigned home stay student, Max, we were disappointed to find that it would be an hour commute to his family home, back the way that we had just come from. My stomach was in my throat as Ian and I sat through another hour of crazy Chinese driving as we tried to make some small talk with our new friends inside their tiny white hatch-back. When we finally got back to Max's high-rise family apartment, we hiked up the six flights with our luggage to be greeted by tremendous Chinese hospitality. Max's mother lent Ian and I both a pair of comfy slippers and sat us on the couch while she finished dinner.
Dinner was... interesting to say the least. There was some pretty good dumplings with some steamed cabbage, fish soup, and some boney meat. While I did my best to try each dish and put on a good face, Ian was not satisfied. Due to a misunderstanding that made Ian think that the meat was rabbit, he told our family that he was a vegetarian, and opted out of eating most of what was on the table. Max's mother was very concerned that we didn't get enough to eat, and despite us telling her that we were perfectly fine, she insisted on going out and getting us McDonalds. Before bed, Max played us some classical Chinese music on his two-string violin. This was a great way to wind down after such a long day, and put Ian and I into sleep mode.
