Quick Trip in Chengdu

I’ve never been to China before; in fact, this was my first time anywhere in Asia. However, this was not a sightseeing tour. This was a baby-seeing tour. There was baby-squeezing aplenty, as you probably saw in my announcement post.

We did manage to squeeze in bit of sightseeing, though, and we took Baby’s First Outing when she was five days old. The AQI was the lowest it had been during my visit (we saw our fleeting shadows that day) and Leigha was feeling up to some mild activity. Let me say first that in Chinese culture, mom and newborn are sequestered away for one month, and mom and baby don’t leave the bed. So going out in public with a baby is unheard of. When people asked if the baby was one month old already, Leigha just smiled enigmatically.

We rented a four-pedal bike and rode through Qinglong Lake park, Christian and me doing the pedaling. Leigha perched precariously on the little seat in the back, baby tucked away in a fabric sling, Mama’s feet propped up on the rails out of the way of the free-spinning rear pedals. The cherry trees were just coming into blossom and families strolled around a lake, the city-scape and blossoms reflected in the water making a good opportunity for ever-popular selfies.

But the last day of my stay, we left Leigha in the company of two girlfriends, and Christian took me on a whirlwind tour of some of Chengdu’s sights. We started at the Giant Panda Research and Breeding Base, a huge preserve that houses over 150 Giant Pandas as well as Red Pandas (unrelated) and other rare animals. I learned that every Giant Panda that exists in the world is a Chinese “citizen” and belongs to China, which may recall them at any time. We met a panda named Gong Zai, who, according to his bio, “was the prototype for Po in Kung Fu Panda.”

Although pandas have the teeth and digestive tract of a carnivore, they get over 90% of their nutrition from bamboo, supplementing their diet with insects and small mammals. Because bamboo is not packed with nutrition, they eat about 30% of their body weight in bamboo every day. They spend roughly half the day eating and half the day napping.

In addition to over 100 pandas, the base is home to resident and migratory birds, such as this Whooper Swan in the appropriately-named Swan Lake.

After a few hours at the research base, we checked in with Leigha and the babe, and stopped by a favorite noodle shop for lunch.

Leigha and her friends went to the hospital with Christian’s passport to file paperwork for baby’s birth certificate, and after a cup of tapioca pearl tea (me) and ice-cream (him), Christian and I took the subway to the Qing Yang Gong Temple.

Qing Yang Gong means “Green Goat Palace”, so there’s lots of reasons I loved it! It dates from 7th century Tang dynasty, although many of the buildings were repaired or rebuilt as recently as the 18-1900s. There is a green goat, strangely with only one horn that curls into its own ear:

Actually, there’s two of these bronze beasts, the most famous relics of the temple. They stand outside the Sanqing Palace. “Considered the simultaneous incarnation of all twelve zodiacal animals of China [so they are not 100% goat, but have, for example, a monkey’s tail, a lion’s talons, dog’s belly, pig’s butt, etc, RS], these two mythological animals are said to bring health and longevity to anyone who strokes their head. Because of this, their head has been worn smooth by luck-seekers.” (from https://www.chinaodysseytours.com/chengdu/qing-yang-gong-temple.html) How much more good luck does this boy need?

In addition to the funky, multi-animal goats, there were lots of other mythical creatures, and many dragons. Eighty-one dragons are carved into the pillars and posts of the octagonal Eight Trigrams Pavilion that stood at the center of the temple complex.

One element of Taoism is the idea of Feng Shui, or the harmony of balance in nature and the internal and external environments. This can be seen in the symbol of Yin and Yang, the divided circle of contrasts–male and female, light and dark.

The Feng Shui principles of harmony and balance were incorporated into every element of desigh throughout the grounds.

It was winter, so the plantings were not as vibrant as other times of the year, but the balance in architecture and landscaping are striking. Arborists, notice the trees at each side of the garden! Each tree is meticulously sculpted from multiple (16?) trunks vined together to make a hollow tree.

The temples themselves were filled with life-sized, gold-leafed deities and historical figures in shrines. People left offerings of fruit, flowers, peanuts, and candies in bowls on a table by the shrine. An attendant softly whacked a gong with a wooden mallet every minute or so, in between surfing on their cell phones. Photos were not encouraged inside the temples so I took these hurridly and tried not to capture any monks, worshipers, or other people.

I’ve always been interested in humanity’s desire to connect to the spiritual world, and intrigued by the traditions we have developed to make sense of our fleeting existence in a world we cannot control. I am always moved by sacred spaces, whether that is the stone-carved church complex in Lalibella, Ethiopia; the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey; the Sagrada Família in Barcellona, Spain; or the “Green Goat” Taoist Temple in Chengdu, China. I know I am privileged to have visited these sacred spaces, and many others, in my lifetime. I’m humbled and inspired to sit in the physical spaces that represent humanity’s finite response to God.