Our Chinese guide -whom we met up with later-said the joss sticks and bowing had no religious significance. They carried boxes of scraps of paper that they tossed into the incense burners, then returned to stand by the monks and all processed out solemnly. When we descended, we saw a procession of monks, followed by a procession of older women in street clothes. Then one could ascend a long flight of stairs, where the central portion was a path of carved relief sculptures, intricate and beautiful, and reminiscent of the one in the Forbidden City, At the top was a loggia that connected four large temples, each one with a different Buddha, an altar of similar stylized food offerings. ![]() There was also an immense jade stone that insured good will. Jing-an has a large central square where people were lighting sticks and bowing in different directions to insure good luck. This huge golden temple is elegant and much larger than ones I had seen years ago in Hong Kong and Japan. Definitely, worth an hour of the traveller's time. Well, a man's gotta do.Īll in all, I just loved this little park - and obviously it's a popular spot with the locals. Now and again, someone watching would disappear and openly relieve himself in the bushes. It was quite intense a lot of murmurs of encouragement from the onlookers. ![]() Eventually, came to three or four fixed tables, with inveterate gamblers, playing cards. I was toe tapping (the music was really good) and had a big grin on my face what lovely people really having fun. Open air, company, exercise - what a tonic for senior citizens. There was a loud-speaker at the side of this organised activity, accompanied by an elderly gent beating the rhythm (perfectly) on a couple of bamboo sticks. I wandered in and, out of the blue, came upon couples dancing! Mostly elderly some middle-aged. It's lovely to see such a quite and peaceful place in the midst of all the busyness of a huge, bustling city, crowded with huge multi-storey buildings which, admittedly, are gob-smackingly impressive. I spent some time one morning in this small but beautiful park.
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