Today I went to Shi Laing (name means Stone Beam) at the invitation of the Calligraphy Society of the college.
The temple is in the rolling hills about 30 drive minutes north-west of Quzhou. The society was one of the groups who gave demonstrations during the visit by the delegation from Red Wing College, Minnesota.
View of the valley from the
pogoda above the temple
Incence burner at the entrance to the main building
The art of writing Chinese characters is called Chinese calligraphy. It is usually done with ink brushes and in ancient China, calligraphy was one of the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholars.
Calligraphy was the means by which scholars could mark their thoughts and teachings for immortality, and as such, represent some of the more precious treasures that can be found in ancient China. This was the time when only scholars could write and the very few educated people could read it.
Bushwalking in China
New building under construction
The temple is under reconstruction as are most that I’ve seen. Although hundreds of years old, they have been rebuilt many times, because most were made of timber were destroyed by accident or intention.
The current constructions in brick and cement should ensure that they last longer.
What I found surprising was the the ground we walked over had the same type of broken sandstone rubble that is found around Sydney. Climbing the hill to the temple buildings had an eerily familiar feel – just like bushwalking at home, except of course the vegetation is completely different and the foothills were covered in mandarin orchards.
The Catholic church
Church interior
Our next stop was in a small town to visit a Catholic church. It had all of the appearances of having little use, although the locals notified the key-holder as we arrived so that it could be opened and we were able to enter.
It had two quite cute timber confessionals which are much more less private that what I’m used to seeing.
Contrary to the group’s quiet behaviour at the temple, they were quite noisy in the church and displayed little reverence for the location. As Vera (the English teacher acting as translator) said they just see it as a curiosity, not as a place of worship.
The fishing pond
The beautiful white ducks
Finally we arrived at our destination which is a combination fishing spot and restaurant. Fishing is quite popular, and there are many places in the region to fish.
The fishing places are mainly weirs which are fed by a combination of rainfall and the river system and managed by local owners. At some, people pay to fish, at others they only pay if they catch any fish or are just expected to eat at the on-site restaurant. After a walk around the area, we headed in for what was to be a huge banquet lunch, which was possibly going to include one of the beautiful white ducks we saw inhabiting the weir.
Lunch, and just over half of the dishes
had arrived
One of the many rounds of cheers,
or "campai" with Vera on my right
Because of the large group, we occupied two tables, one mainly women and the other mainly men. not sure of the protocols here.
The lunch was delicious and I was reminded again of the huge variety of vegetables and vegetable dishes common to this region – see the photos below for some samples. In the photo at left, the dishes are: bamboo shoots, tofu, shrimp, whole fish, salted roasted fresh peanuts, pickled vegetables, shredded radish and duck stew.
Pouring a sip of fermented
plum liquor
Also on offer was a most powerful type of plum ‘liquid’ that was described as 50% alcohol, which after tasting it, I didn’t doubt. There were far too many toasts for me, so my sips became smaller as the lunch wore on. Fortunately I was able to politely refuse ‘bottoms up’ toasts otherwise I would have been completely plastered.
As lunch drew to a close (I am amazed at how much Chinese people eat at a sitting and yet are not overweight), there was a great flurry to clear the table – something that doesn’t normally happen in restaurants.
Lets play mahjong
I soon understood the urgency to clean up when the table top was removed – underneath was a mahjong table. Mahjong is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players. It uses tiles instead of cards, but is similar to the Western card game rummy.
Apparently the rules vary from region to region, governing everything from the mixing, tile selection and playing. What was really interesting was the the table was electronic, so at the end of a game, the tiles are swept into a central well to be mixed and stacked while another set is raised from below, ready to play. Very impressive.
