Today we visited the place where Chinese people throughout history have believed that people’s spirits go to be judged when they die. It is called Fengdu, or the City of Ghosts. There is a temple for the “King of Hell” as well as statues depicting what happens to people if they are not good in this life. Yep, a bit creepy to say the leas, but also very interesting. There are also three bridges to choose from that you can walk over. Depending on your choice, you will either have love, health, or riches in your next life. We learned a lot about the Chinese Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife from our experience.
We attended a pearl lecture and learned all about how to determine which pearls are best and watched as the instructor harvested 20 pearls from a huge oyster (we always thought you only got one pearl per oyster, apparently not!). After the pearl lecture we attended a Chinese painting demonstration by the artist that Val bought the paintings from. He gave us a little history on Chinese calligraphy as well as information about free-hand painting as well as detailed painting. Then he completed a free-hand piece right in front of us. It was so cool to watch him work.
Jessica was determined that our tour group participate in the Talent Show tonight so Val wrote a rap about our experiences on the trip (many of you have participated in similar rapping adventures with Val, so you can imagine what a hoot this was). Our group was totally game for it so we had a practice session in the afternoon and decided that in terms of costuming, it would be tourist garb all the way. We had a blast and the video is hilarious. Here’s the text for you (don’t worry, the shirts were just bought from street vendors, but we had to make it a little more interesting so we took a little poetic license :).
China Spree Rap
We came on this trip with China Spree
Martinezes, Val, Jess and the Lambies
Our adventure started out in Beijing
Learnin’ all about Mao and Deng Xiao Ping
The Forbidden City was super huge
But we got caught in a deluge
We ran up the Great Wall like Rocky Balboa
Bought black market shirts which was against the lawah
Xi’an was next with the crazy night bazaar
But the terra cotta soldiers were the best by far
Now we’re crusin’ down the river with eclipse yahoos
They’ve got announcements and lectures up the wazoo
We got the Danes and the Aussies and Foster City too
Not to mention the New Yorkers and Captain Hu
We love Phoebe and Fancy and Michael too
And the super great job that they do
The Shennong Stream dudes are totally ripped
They got us up the river lickety split
Rowin’ and pullin’ looked really tough
And we were super glad they weren’t in the buff
We were sweatin’ in the ghost town and a little freaked out
By the statues and the punishments we learned about
We’re eatin’ watermelon at breakfast lunch and dinner
As well as sharing dishes on the table spinner
We’ve got great memories from our Yangtze cruise
Like really loud horns and stinky paint too
There’s just two weeks left on our Chinese trip
But nothing beats sailin’ on the President’s ship
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