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| A jar of 'canned' pears |
As I sit here eating my dessert of ‘canned pears’ (which come in a jar) and green tea ice-cream, I’m contemplating some of the differences between China and Australia.
The concept of tourism here is a little different. I’m living in a city of 2.46 million people which has a history of human habitation stretching back many centuries. In Europe or Australia there’d be a tourist information centre (even if it’s part of a general store in a small town) with maps, local attraction information and postcards.
In Quzhou, although there’s the Quzhou Tourism Bureau who produce maps and booklets, these are not distributed throughout the city. I’ve found that the map they gave me, although it has street names (in Chinese), is grossly inaccurate and marginally useful as a tool for finding one’s way around. I mainly use a print-out from Google Maps (thanks Google – iPhone Maps users weep).
Even the hotels I have visited inquiring about accommodation costs have nothing in the foyers for visitors. it’s as though that if you come here, you know why, know someone or have a local contact that takes care of everything. Maybe the whole postcard thing is dead as everyone’s busy taking photos with their cameras and it’s only those memories that matter – I don’t know.
So, on to yesterday’s escapade. I decided to visit the Confucius Temple which is close to the Kecheng (north Quzhou) CBD. On the way, I was distracted by a family who spoke some English and wanted to chat, so I missed my stop.
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| Billboard for a real estate agency |
No worries I though, I’ll use my maps to walk there (about 1km) and check out some of the local features – always eye-opening. The first was a real estate agency.
Ours have this beautiful glossy photos of the property with the ‘creative’ text to attract you attention. Not here.
They use yellow pro-forma cards with blank spaces to write the basic details – see photo.
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| Chinglish signs in the park |
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Fushan (Blue Mountain)
Park west gate |
Next I happened upon a park, indicated in green on the map. It was beautiful.
It appears to be on the only hill in town called Fushan (Blue Mountain) Park. It was just like any large park in Australia on a weekend, filled with people and families of all ages (there because of the holiday) enjoying the autumn sunshine.
I was casually walking when some of the signs took my eye. Even the locals here joke about Chinglish, and these signs were great examples. I can’t be critical as with a population the size of China’s, having anything in English is welcome. I have still only seen one other local westerner since arriving.
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| Toddlers playing in the stone garden |
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Typical park scene?
Kids climbing statues,
church steeples in background |
One thing that was hugely different though was that where in Australia a children’s play area would have ‘soft fall’ material underfoot, the toddlers here were jumping on rocks!
There are ‘soft fall’ areas under play equipment here though. The next thing I encountered was what looked like church steeples. What!!
On my way there I came across more children playing on stone sculptures of Confucius and other scholars. Again I was reminded that it’s difficult to pass through anywhere discreetly and take unobtrusive photos – I just look so different.
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| Quzhou Catholic Church |
What I found was indeed a Catholic Church, quite plainly decorated. I was a bit bemused by what seemed to be blue balloons on the columns until I realised that they were sewn fan covers.
While inside I was greeted by Father Paul, the resident priest who spoke some English and told me a little about the church, that it had been build about 5 years ago, on what I believe was a former church site - and when mass was held (8am Sundays).
He said that they have about 300 parishioners. The actual functioning part of the church was on the first floor – I don’t know what was on the ground floor. What was really amazing was that they had a list of parish priests dating back to 1662 – probably missionaries.
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| Interior of the church |
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| The church altar |
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| The church foyer and Father Paul |
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| Lutheran church in Quzhou |
Father Paul was very kind and helpful and I asked him about the small church I’d seen in town. He said that they were Lutherans who had only recently set it up.
I couldn’t help thinking that here was the Catholic church, on the highest point of the highest hill in town, while the Lutherans were down among the ‘sinners’ or ‘lost souls’ in the town.
I was reminded also of a recent Religion Report on ABC Radio National about the changes to the Catholic parish of St Vincent’s Redfern, in the Aboriginal heartland of inner Sydney. There, over more than 20 years, former Parish Priest, Father Ted Kennedy, created an extraordinary, freewheeling community. In 2002, Father Ted retired, owing to serious ill health, and Cardinal Pell appointed two priests from the conservative, neo-Catechumenal way to take over the parish. They felt that Catholicism had been sacrificed for community participation and there’s been an uneasy relationship since – it appears that the new podiums have made good firewood to keep locals warm on cold nights in the Block.
This is a world away however, and so I continued my walk, unfortunately (or fortunately) exiting on the wrong side of the park and then walking around to find the Confucius Temple – to be continued in part 2.
