感谢giving

 

The bright lights of the Huacheng Plaza 花城广场 area dimmed at 06:00

This past Thanksgiving was the first opportunity for us to get out of town on an overnight excursion (not including our trip to Taiwan at the beginning of October). That lucky destination was the city of Foshan 佛山, a burg large enough to be its own city but close enough to Guangzhou 广州 that it can be reached by the metro in under an hour. An easy daytrip in other words, but we decided to spend the night there. The powers that be had bestowed on me a three-hour early release from work the day before the holiday, so my wife and I used that break to blow this popsicle stand of a town just after 14:30. Later that afternoon we checked into our room at the Cordis Foshan Lingnan Tiandi hotel 佛山岭南天地康得思酒店, a "five-star" hotel a short walk from Zumiao station 祖廟站. At this stage in my working life I can afford the occasional stay in posh accommodations (and the Cordis wasn't that expensive compared to hotels in the U.S. that aren't Motel 6s or Super 8s) - after I retire I will be on a low fixed income (so much for that federal gravy train some ignorant relations think I'll be boarding), meaning a future of more modest accommodations whenever we travel. Until that day, here's the view from the balcony of our 11th floor room:

After checking in I took Lonely Planet's advice to eat at a branch of the Yingji Noodle Shop 应记面家, where I had the recommended shrimp wonton 鲜虾云吞面. It wasn't bad but I ended up splashing some of the soup on my shirt and pants, a frequent act of clumsiness which never fails to put me in a bad mood:

An after-dinner stroll following an unsuccessful attempt to find a certain bar serving craft beer (it was closed):

Feihong Jie 飞鸿街, a long stretch of food stalls close to our hotel. The street is named after Wong Fei-hung 黃飛鴻, a kung fu master who became one of China's most famous folk heroes. More on him later:

The street led to Lingnan World 佛山岭南天地 a tree-shaded, social media-friendly neighborhood of restored shops and residences, many of which have been converted into trendy boutiques and eateries. In all there are 128 restored buildings and 22 cultural protection sites going back to the Qing dynasty 清朝 and the Republic of China era 中華民國大陸時期. I instantly regretted not eating and drinking at one of the many restaurants in the area. It's no wonder Shu-E gets frustrated at my constant second-guessing of myself:  

Back at the hotel. Lingnan World is off to the left, obscured by foliage: 

Instead of enjoying a craft beer at a table on the patio of a busy restaurant, watching the world go by, I instead found myself in my hotel room with a 7-Eleven-brand "craft beer, all the while wondering how I could have sunk so low. Actually, the taste wasn't that bad, especially considering the can had cost all of RMB 5.5, or about 80¢:

The view from the balcony looking toward Lingnan World on Thanksgiving morning:

After breakfast we visited Zumiao 祖庙, a Taoist temple site with origins going back to the 11th century. The grounds are extensive, covering 30,200 square meters/325,070 square feet:

Heading toward the sounds of a lion dance being performed:

This was one of those times when height worked to my advantage. The temple was surprisingly crowded for an ordinary weekday in China, mainly due to the presence of many student and tour groups. According to my wife many tour groups travel during the week as famous Chinese sightseeing spots get swarmed with visitors on weekends and national holidays:  

The top character is obscured but the banner reads 龍馬精神, which literally translates as "dragon horse spirit", a Chinese blessing said to others during the Lunar New Year:

The missus takes a selfie in front of  the "cute" lion (her words):

Following the completion of the lion dancing we had a look at the Ancestral Temple, the site of worship of Beidi, the Cantonese name of the Northern God, Zhenwu 真武:

The temple is also the site where Cantonese opera 粵劇 started to become popular. The Wanfu stage 万福合 dates back to 1658:

I didn't realize it at first but my choice of clothing for this day was a replay of the 2025 Japan Series 日本シリーズ championship, in which the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (cap) 福岡ソフトバンクホークス defeated the Hanshin Tigers (jersey) 阪神タイガース 4 games to 1. Alert readers may recall I attended a Tigers game at the venerable Kōshien Stadium 阪神甲子園球場 earlier this year:

The temple had an informative museum dedicated to Beidi that we visited next. The displays included this replica brick portrait of a Black Tortoise 玄武; the original was crafted during the Southern Dynasties period (420-589 CE) and is currently housed in a museum in Henan Province 河南省, having been unearthed there among ancient tombs in 1957:

A diorama showing officials doling out rice after a disaster:

Apparently an original, a Qing dynasty-era red and lacquer wood carving beam depicting a scene from Kou Zhun Carries Boots, an old story later made into an operatic film:

Examples of ceramic sculptures:

I was impressed with this replica iron statue of Skanda 韋馱. The original dates from the Ming dynasty 明朝:

Also on the grounds of Zumiao is a Confucius Temple 孔庙 and a small garden. There wasn't much to see inside the 1911 temple building, hence the lack of photos:

Shu-E was fascinated with this three-headed flamingo, one of a pair of statues in the garden:

If ancient ancestral temples, Cantonese opera and Confucianism aren't enough, Zumiao also has something for kung fu fanatics. There are two memorial halls devoted to two martial artists who were born in Foshan - the aforementioned Wong Fei Hung and Ip Man 葉問, who taught kung fu to Bruce Lee. The Ip Man Hall 叶问堂 was undergoing renovations, but the Huang Feihong Memorial Hall 黄飞鸿纪念馆 was open. Wong was a physician who became a folk hero as a result of his appearing in coutless (well, 106 to be exact)) kung fu movies, the first being released in 1949: 

Shu-E busts some moves:

I wasn't so interested in the 工夫 but I did take a liking to the building housing the exhibits:

From Zumiao, we returned to Lingnan World, passing by some old buildings on the street along the way:

Lingnan World looks better after dark than it does in daylight, with the modern animal sculptures distracting somewhat from the authentic old buildings: 

Nevertheless we stayed long enough to have lunch, where I finally enjoyed a decent beer, this one going with the Australian wagyu burger I had to eat: 

Taken in the same spot as the shot snapped the previous evening (see above):

We returned to Guangzhou in the late afternoon. Originally I had wanted to go to a Western restaurant for dinner that evening, but feeling depressed after getting "home" I opted to stay in. The wife ordered some Chiayi Turkey Rice 嘉義火雞肉飯, a Formosan favorite of mine. The meal she procured was rather bland compared to the original Taiwanese dish, but on the bright side was much better than the turkey sandwiches I used to eat on Thanksgiving Day back in my bachelor Tōkyō days. The power of positive thinking:

Saturday morning after breakfast watching window washers finishing up on the Guangzhou International Finance Center 广州国际金融中心, the 28th tallest building in the world at 439 meters/1440 feet high, and not a job I would ever do no matter what the salary. The day would be spent at home binge-watching The Beatles Anthology...:

 

...but on Sunday we would venture out into the city. But that's a story for another post. Instead I'll close this entry with a brief rumination on what I have to be thankful for. The last five years have been a struggle at times, starting with our forced evacuation from Addis Ababa at the start of the COVID-19 pandeic, even though the decision was supposed to be a voluntary one. Our return to Ethiopia saw a deteriorating security situation which confined us to the capital city for the last half-year of our tour. The only time I was able to leave Addis Ababa was on a gurney on a medevac jet, when I was sent to South Africa to spend several days in the cardiology ward of a Pretoria hospital. This awareness of my mortality was followed by a humiliating bidding process that eventually led to an out of cone position in Beijing 北京. It was there I had to deal with a micromanaging supervisior who made several inappropriate remarks about my age and health. In retrospect I should've filed a grievance with HR but didn't due to their relatively short tenure at post, I decision I now regret as it not only encouraged the bullying, but probably played a significant role the health problems I was experiencing. And then there was the most recent (and hopefully last) bidding process I had to undergo, another emotionally brutal undertaking that seemed to drive home the fact that China is the only place on this planet where I seem to be wanted. Oh, the irony! In what I assume is some "good" news I recently learned that my tour here has been extended, which should bring me right up to the mandatory retirement age. 

But I'm still here (in the material world), and for that fact I am extremely grateful, especially upon learning that others I have worked with in the past have not been so fortunate. In the last couple of blog entries I've touched on depression, but I've decided to seek counseling, and will accept medication if it comes to that, a path I'd always been reluctant to take in the past. And of course I have a wonderful partner that I don't want to drive away as I have done with others before her. Finally, there's our daughter, who will be returning to China to visit us at the end of the year. If that isn't reason enough to get out of bed every morning, then I have no comprehension of what the word "motivation" means.

So for those who celebrate it every fourth Thursday in November, I hope you had an enjoyable 感恩节!