A Walk in the Park

Chengdu has many wonderful parks, each with its own personality, but they are all places for families and friends to gather.  Some are more boisterous with lots of games, singing and dancing going on.  The two parks that we visited yesterday reflected a tranquil Sunday afternoon.  I will post the photos as I came to them so walk in the park with me and discover it as I did....

Tazishan Park

Most parks have a dramatic Chinese entrance

This one is home to an old pagoda, but unfortunately it has not been maintained and you can't climb inside for a view. 

A traditional style bridge graces the river

The armband with the Chinese flag seemed to be the identifier for the park workers. 

Umbrellas are almost as common for shade on hot (but never sunny here) days as they are for rain.  I prefer the sun, but wear a hat for shade.   

Both men and women carry fans here (I have bought one to carry in my bag).  Not only is it part of the culture, but it makes a difference with the heat and humidity.  This one is well used.

 The base of the pagoda is decorated with stone carvings. 

 

One section of the park had a lot of tables and stools made from tree trunks.  Here families and couples relaxed in the shade and some had picnics or drinks.  I was surprised to not find any of the gambling games described in an earlier blog, but it made for a quieter setting.

All the parks are impressively clean

  I

Have you noticed that whenever people realize they are being photographed, they give the peace sign. 

Outside the park I crossed the street to catch a taxi.  As I crossed under the freeway above I came across this roadside repair station.  It can service the many scooters and bicycles.  

I had seen the girls below in the middle below when I went into the park.  Then they had wanted me to pose with them so they could take my picture.  I took this photo and then realized it was the same girls I had seen a couple of hours earlier.  Even adults flash the peace sign.  

Wangjianglou Park

Later in the afternoon Brian and I strolled through Wangjianglou Park in another part of the city.

Who knew?  The second little pig must have rebuilt his house in China! 

This little boy was playing badminton with his dad, and he was pretty good.  notice that straight arrow birdie to the right.  

Brian will always love maps.  He just got his first smart phone so now he likes to compare the map in his palm with the big map.  Are we still lost? 

The Opera that isn't Opera

We recently had a cultural experience one evening.   Chengdu is the home of the famous opera of this province,  Sichuan, and one of the city's main opera houses is across the street from our  hotel.

We knew not to expect opera by our definition, but more of a polished variety show with traditional art forms of this region dating back to the 1700's.  

These ladies danced gracefully to melodic, Oriental music and as they moved their arms they manged to control their lengthy sleeves in colourful arcs and twirls.  It was mesmerizing.  

 I've never seen such a large marionette puppet.  The puppeteer controlled her skillfully and gracefully as a story was told through music and both of them dancing.  She made the long feathers coming out of the puppet's headpiece move in the same wide arcs as the sleeves of the dancers above.  

Of course there had to be jugglers.

The following dancers symbolized lotus flowers.  

There were other selections of music, dance and comedy with the final act being the highly acclaimed face mask changing performance.  This is an ancient skill that has been passed down for generations within families and is a standard act of Sichuan opera.  The performers wear bright costumes and move to fast and dramatic music.  Part of their costumes are vividly coloured Chinese masks, which allow them to change faces almost instantly. I read that a skilled face-changer can change as many as 10 masks in 20 seconds. You would have to see it to believe it!

The audience doesn't even realize they are wearing masks and so we sat stunned to watch the faces change with the swipe of a fan, move of the head or wave of a hand.  I kept thinking of the magic tricks of our son-in-law Mike.  Later I learned that the skill of face-changing is considered a national treasure which is not allowed to be revealed.  

After many minutes of switching masks, we finally we got to see his real face!

It was an enjoyable evening and I would go again to another opera.  

Hong Kong Weekend

When we came to China the embassy in Mexico would only issue us a dual entry visa.  We wanted to use up the second of those entries before heading home next week so that we would be entitled to a multiple entry visa.  For that reason we needed to exit China and Hong Kong is the closest destination that would allow us to do that.  (Yes, we know that Hong Kong has been officially part of China for the past 16 years, but for visa purposes it qualified).

We decided to start with a Hop-on-Hop-Off bus tour, but it turned out the routes covered all the major areas we wanted to see and admissions to where we wanted to go, so it kept us busy.

 It rained quite a bit, and when it wasn't raining it was incredibly humid - so  that explains my flat hair.

Day 1 (really a half day)

The first route we took was around Kowloon, since this is the part of the city where our hotel was located.  The name means 'nine dragons' in Cantonese.  It is part of Hong Kong, but is a peninsula to the north of Hong Kong Island.  The views below are looking across the harbour to Hong Kong Island.

With a population of over 2 million people in less than 47 square kilometers, Kowloon is one of the most densely populated places on the planet.  And that doesn't count the thousands of tourists throughout the year.  That requires a lot of stores, markets and businesses to support all those people, in addition to high rise housing.

You would think they had run out of space to build, but we saw a lot of construction

Hong Kong has a rich and interesting past so of course we had to find the history museum.  It was a good time to hop off the bus since by then it had started to rain.  On our way walking to the museum I noticed how well prepared these city workers were with the rain protection for their traditional hats.  It turned out to be an excellent museum that we both enjoyed.

Back on the bus, we drove by some interesting landmarks such as the clock tower and a pretty Christian church.  I'm sure part of its appeal was it not being a tall building, and having a small bit of land around it.

This harbour is a typhoon shelter that accommodates many boats when storms are approaching.

By this time dusk was approaching.  We went for a walk along the harbour front but as you can tell from the second photo, it also started to rain pretty hard.  Foolishly we hadn't taken rain gear so thank goodness for the bus-provided rain ponchos.  

But it takes more than rain, darkness, and lack of tripod to stop me from taking pictures.

Day 2

Our first stop was the LDS temple in Kowloon.  It was built in 1996, a year prior to Hong Kong being ceded back to China.   It houses the typical temple facilities, as well as offices and a meetinghouse.

We crossed the harbour on Star Ferries, which are historical, as well as functional icons of Hong Kong. 

Look Up....Way Up...(and I'll call Rusty).  It's what Hong Kong is known for.

We took the cogwheel train up Victoria Peak.  It is the highest point on the island but since the train doesn't go all the way to the top, we hiked another hour for even more spectacular views.

You can't really tell from this height, but those ships are large cargo ships waiting to enter the harbour, and they are only a portion of all the vessels anchored there.

Wait Brian...that's my pose!

  

Hong Kong is also famous for its shopping.  Photos can't do justice to the throng of people out on the streets, nor can you appreciate the sounds and smells in the warm (and humid) night air.  We did buy a couple of things, but no great bargains.

Day 3

This day's bus route took us to the south side of Hong Kong Island to some of the more 'remote' areas with less population - but it's all relative!  There were some beautiful bays.

Ocean Park Bay

Stanley Bay

We did some shopping (in the rain) - no I didn't buy the hat. 

 Our bus tickets included a sampan ride around Aberdeen harbour.  These boats were once the floating homes of many Chinese, and a few people still do live on the water, despite the government's recent encouragement to relocate to land.  

I think I found Puff the Magic Dragon and boy who didn't want to grow up.

Back to Hong Kong, Kowloon and our quick weekend trip was over.