China Trip, Chengdu 9th Nov - 10th Nov 2006

It's been donkey ages since I have blogged, and my fans are screaming for signs of me still alive and on Earth.

I was away in China from 9th Nov to 21st Nov, leading a group of 32 girls & 3 boys to China., plus Miss Lee Choon Lin, Mr Quek Chin Keong & Mdm Gao Song. We travelled from Chengdu （成都）to Xian（西安） to San Men Xia（三门峽） to Luoyang（洛阳） to Kaifeng（开封） to Zhengzhou（郑州） to Dengfeng（登封） then retrace our steps all the way back to Chengdu.

Upon arrival in Chengdu, we went straight to Wang Jiang Lou（望江楼）, the memorial for Xue Tao（薛涛）, a relatively unknown Tang（唐）dyanasty female poetess due to her social status as a courtesan. Despite her low status, she was the one who used bamboo as materials to produce paper, especially small pieces of paper to write the short poems so popular during her time.

It seemed that she was not very well loved by her significant other, for he seemed to have married another woman.

That very evening in Chengdu, we had the chance to shop at 1 of the preserved streets of Chengdu, Jin Li Street. （锦里步行街）

Most of the buildings definitely looked rebuilt, but I like the feel of the place, except it is a tad too commercialised for my taste. The moment I started to walk into the place, I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera along. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because my old Olympus would not have been able to take such clear pictures in poorly lit conditions.

One thing that caught my attention was a stall that invited people to try shooting at straw target boards with a chinese crossbow. The stall claimed that it was a "Zhuge Nu"（诸葛弩）, meaning a crossbow designed by the famous strategist Zhuge Liang（诸葛亮）in the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. What is so intriguing about the crossbow is that it was known to be a rapid-firing crossbow, capable of shooting up to 10 bolts, increasing Shu（蜀） army's firepower back in the 3 Kingdom Era.

On the second day, we went to Qingyang Gong （青羊宫）, a taoist temple in Chengdu. Unfortunately for the students, the taoist priest guide was talking at such a rapid speed that most of them could not catch what he was saying. The fact that he was talking about Chinese mythology and taoist beliefs did not help the students to understand the place better too. The goat has the characteristics of all 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac: Dragon horn, Mouse ears, Roster eyes, Goat beard, Monkey neck, Cow nose, Horse mouth, Tiger claws, Dog belly, Pig bottom, Rabbit back and Snake tail. By touching the part of the goat belonging to your own zodiac, you can pray for harmony within the family and smooth ride for the year ahead.

According to the priest, this pavilion was built to represent that the sky was round and the earth square, so the pavilion is circular and built on a square raised platform. The raised platform is built on the centre of 9 big square tiles, thus signifying that the pavilion is positioned in the middle of a 9 square 8 trigrams （九宫八卦）. Being in the centre of the temple grounds, this pavilion will maintain the equilibrium of all the forces in the area. The pavilion has 5 colours to symbolise the 5 Chinese elements. Red for fire, yellow for earth, green for wood, black for water and white for gold.





After the temple visit, we went to another famous street in Chengdu, Qin Tai Street （琴台街）and did some shopping for souvenirs and local produce. After lunch, we proceeded to Chengdu's airport and flew over to Xian in the afternoon.