Greetings from southern China,

All attention in China is focused on the Beijing Olympics today. The Chinese athletes are doing very well, capturing a majority of the gold medals up to this point, a source of great national pride for all the people I encounter. Public television channels provided by the government are saturated with coverage of the Games. One is never far from a screen tuned to one of the many CCTV stations and the Beijing Games. The United States seems to be doing quite well, too.

I am in a pleasant four star Chengdu hotel with real bacon and eggs for the few round eyes staying in the place... and all the Chinese, too. It turns out the Chinese like an American breakfast on occasion as much as I do. In the dining room people commonly grab any vacant chair around the large circular tables set up to accommodate up to ten people. A large "lazy Susan" connects all diners to the common dishes of food usually shared by a group. I occupy smaller tables when I can, but that is no guarantee someone will not grab the other unoccupied chair while I am off searching for something edible.

Considering all the refined carbohydrates and fats in the usual Chinese fare, it is easy to understand why one now sees so many more overweight people on the streets than in the U.S. Forty years ago exactly the opposite impression made me wonder if Mao's "Iron Rice Bowl" had been broken. I can still recall the shock I got upon returning home and seeing just how fat Americans were compared to all the skinny Chinese people with whom I had just been mingling. Today, China has reached parity with over indulgent America while many in the southern hemisphere continue to starve.

At breakfast we are always offered a large selection of leather shoelaces (narrow strips of thinly baked tofu); several varieties of spongy buns filled with pork hash or some vegetable concoction; many different kinds of cooked and raw oil saturated weeds (vegetables), some unrecognizable; at least one fruit that is usually watermelon and unappetizing gruels, called Congee. Congee is the mainstay of the Chinese morning meal. There seems to be an infinite variety of Congee; some contain meats, but most are plain thick soups made from grains or corn. Those in the know add spicy tidbits to the slurry to satisfy their individual tastes. With the exception of one plate of dried beef chips, friend eggs and various tofu dishes, there is little protein in the Chinese breakfast habit.

To my delight, this hotel has an automated machine that makes a nearly gourmet cup of coffee and a charming little waitress who goes out of her way to add a little to my cup at awkwardly frequent intervals. Actually, I think she just wants to get up close and personal. The Chinese also like coffee, though it is a rarity away from these international hotels. The dining room staff wear colorful tunics; add some spiked caps and they would look just like old English court jesters wearing serious expressions.

The flight down from Xi'an offered a surprise in the departure lounge: among the over priced shops I noted a pharmacy. The matronly attendant in a white coat shouted something in Chinese and with wild gestures indicated she needed my immediate attention. As I approached the counter she hurriedly retrieved two packages, laid them on the counter and excitedly jabbered away in unintelligible Chinese something obviously of urgent concern to me. On closer inspection of the two products, I couldn't believe my eyes! The lady offers me a bottle of Cialis and a box of Viagra... in the airport departure lounge, yet! It certainly adds new possibilities to the "Mile high club" adventure... for all of us old guys who missed out on the first go around.

Strutting along the departure corridor I spotted a girl wearing a T-shirt bearing English language decoration, something common here in China. The words frequently are nonsense or horrible grammatical constructions, often quite humorous to a native speaker. This one, fancy font, bright colors and all offered, "Girl Power! Fantastic Action!" intermingled with other irrelevant words in the background. It reminded me of the American girl wearing a T-shirt decorated with two Chinese characters. One day in a Chinatown restaurant she asked the server smirking at her shirt what the characters meant in English. "Cheap and delicious" replied the Chinese waitress.

Chengdu is clearly more civilized than any of the other Chinese cities I've visited so far, large or small. I emphasize civilized because people actually obey the traffic signals for the most part and I have seen fewer public smokers or spitters. I don't see so many people yelling at one another, either in person or on phones. At breakfast this morning in the $57 four star Garden City Hotel only two people felt it necessary to scream at the person on the other end of their cell phone conversation. That is an improvement. Most of the yelling is done by men, suggesting posturing. I have seen other more cultured telephone behavior by gentlemen speaking in normal conversational tones.

Aggressive, crude older "country" women engage in the practice as well, but their voices suggest an argument in progress where as men appear to be commanding. Younger women, teenage girls often sound like they are whining, pleading... sometimes at the tops of their voices. Strangely, the boys I've observed on the phone almost sound quietly cultured, even when obviously chatting with a buddy! It is a mystery, but Chinese phone etiquette makes many of this country's citizens look uncivilized, uncultured, oblivious to those around them or poorly educated to my dainty Western sensibilities.

Chengdu like many Chinese cities has two faces: one is the totally Western culture reflected in the giant glittering shopping malls and international hotels. The other is the "real China" one can easily see down any of the side streets where older buildings live and working class people enjoy activities that seem mostly unaffected by the nearby race into the Twenty-first Century. A vegetable seller pushes his tricycle overloaded with fresh produce singing out "Sussy boss it.......Sit." over and over. As he passes I note his sing-song comes from one of the ubiquitous recording bull horns. Street sweepers are busy on the shady sidewalks keeping even these side streets spotless. Two old men sit on boxes while their birds in adjacent cages chirp greetings to one another during this  common ritual among the winged pet owners. The occasional Grandmother follows a naked little one as it toddles down the way perfecting the newly acquired art of walking. Idle men roll up their T-shirts to show bare bellies smoking cigarettes and sharing boisterous camaraderie. A constant flow of taxis and bicycles glide along the streets. Unfamiliar smells mingle with well known odors as my mind races to identify the constantly changing olfactory invasions; most pleasant, some acrid, offensive.

Naturally I have found several places to recover from my occasional bouts of culture shock. Every block or two hosts a KFC, a MacDonald's or a PizzaHut. So popular are these American restaurants, they are now being rapidly copied by several home grown chains, one of which yesterday provided my midday chicken lunch complete with Pepsi and desert for a total of $3!Today I enjoyed a BigMac and chocolate milkshake in the second floor dining area of a MacDonald's overlooking People's Square, Chengdu's version of the Tienanmen Square in Beijing. In full view of a towering statue of Mao Zedong I munched my capitalist burger and wondered what old Marxist Mao would think of the New China, now less communistic than some countries in the West. China has done what philosopher, Hegel predicted: "Confront a thesis with its antithesis and a synthesis results." The New Communist China now embraces Capitalism with such enthusiasm one can easily forget how it was born in the crucible of an epic battle with the Capitalist West last century.

Every time I think I must have already learned just about all there is worth knowing, I find myself startled by something totally unexpected, paradigm shifting, myth busting, mind boggling. The other day while sharing my bag of apples with a new (English speaking) friend I wondered aloud why we don't eat the whole thing like horses. After all, the seeds and core are perfectly good fiber for our lower gut! My friend answered as most of us must: "I don't know. It is just the way I've always done it. I think the seeds don't taste good." With that I ate the rest of my apple core. You know what? It tastes great and the crunchy parts add an interesting variation to the experience of eating an apple. The next morning I tried eating watermelon, seeds and all: same conclusion... and I am cooperating with nature by spreading some of the intact melon seeds as I travel from one place to another! Why do Americans peel a banana starting at the stem while Asians start at the other end? Either works perfectly fine! 

So many things we "know," so many things we believe are anachronistic artifacts of another era, perpetuated by the force of custom alone. Is that good? Is that bad? Where is the best balance between conserving and improving, between Conservatism and Liberalism. It certainly is at neither extreme!

There is an old Taoist proverb that says one cannot add more to an already full cup; he must first empty the cup before anything new can be added. Still, I keep on searching for new experiences, new knowledge, all the while suspecting I have already over filled my cup. So, must all the illusions acquired during a lifetime first be set aside in order to see clearly what the world can teach us anew? It does seem so and I keep on watching, listening, smelling, tasting, touching, wondering; ready to experience that which I have never yet before experienced... though countless others before me have long known it commonplace. "Question authority!" is still a good motto. 

PS: A good Plain English Adaptation of Lao-Tzu's ideas can be found at this website. A web hosting site for many Buddhist organizations is here. Here is a site containing the TaoDeChing by Lao Tze.

PPS: Don't miss the rest of the photos focusing on the parks of the area displayed on their own separate page. FB

Chengdu Again... twice.

After visiting the giant Buddha in Leshan and the sacred mountain at Emeishan I returned to Chengdu to make plans for exploring the Tebetan plateau region starting with the small village of Kangding. When onward progress appeared impossible, I again returned to Chengdu and civilization before plotting a course for Xining. FB