Dutching the World: CHINA 1

okay - here we go

parts from my e-mail are italic

saturday:

ok, arriving i had my first laugh. Some health inspectors came into our airplane to check our temperature. They were all dressed in white suits wearing special glasses etc - so extremely overdone haha! XD

Then met my aunt (poor her, she had been waiting for like an hour at least, with Lisa (eldest daughter) and drove home.

As my aunt pointed out, arriving in Shanghai is more like arriving in New York: good looking highways etc etc. The only thing showing you're in china is: a) chinese characters, b) the traffic rules - or actually: the lack of them.

Sunday:

Yesterday i went to Longhua Si (dragon flower Temple) was really a nice temple. There were quite a few monks walking around, lots of laypeople, and also, to my delight, sincere lay people - they formed assemblies and recited (Na Mo A Mi Tuo Fo; Na Mo Gwan Shr Yin Pu Sa; etc, and then a Sutra i suppose). I asked on monk whether he knew Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, showing a picture; and yes he did, he had heard lots of people talk about the Venerable Master. Only afterwards did i realize i should also have asked whether he knew Dharma Master Heng Sure - since i once heard DM Sure talk about his experience in Longhua Si taking part in an ordination ceremony.

photos: Longhua Si (Dragon Flower Temple)
the one where you see some people as the subject you should take another look: they're holding recitation books (they are the ones i'm talking about in the above)