Temples of Wuhan, and a Christmas away

This year was my first Christmas away from Australia, and it definitely was what you would call strange. While the Chinese do celebrate Christmas, they celebrate it with shopping. There were sales akin to an Aussie “Boxing Day” all over the place on Christmas Eve, and everybody in Wuhan and surrounding districts appeared to be taking advantage. The streets were jammed, the sidewalks were crowded, and everybody was trying to sell me something. Of course, I forgot my camera so no photos…sorry.

We had just come from our school’s Christmas Party where I had signed myself up to sing a song in Chinese, translated as “The Moon Stands For My Heart”. It’s a classic Chinese love song and I wimped out at the last minute and roped in Charlie (one of the Chinese teaching assistants) to come up and join me. As I was on in the second (and last) bracket, I was hoping that my students would have left but when I entered the stage, they were lined up across the front ready to cheer me on. Thankfully I remembered all the words and didn’t embarrass myself. All of the children performed really well on the night, as did most of the teachers. My students were superb (not biased at all).

Afterwards, while trying to push our way through the crowds, we jumped on a bus to the pub and celebrated Christmas Eve in true Aussie style. A few beers, some English music, Santa Hats and dancing all night.

On Christmas day, Taryn (who had come to Wuhan for Christmas) and I headed out for lunch at one of Wuchang’s more anglicised restaurants. They have an English menu, but the first time we went there the ice cream came out first given it was the easiest to make. We spent the afternoon shopping for cheap DVDs and the evening watching movies before heading to bed. A strange, but enjoyable Christmas day.

Today I met up with a friend to visit some local temples and have lunch. The first stop was Guiyuan Si, a Buddhist temple built in 1658 in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), one of the four Buddhist temples of Wuhan. It’s the most famous Buddhist complex in Wuhan, still operates as a functioning temple and is best known for its hall of 500 gilded luohan (enlightened disciples), sculpted between 1822 and 1831, each in a different posture with distinct features. According to the temple information, the luohan are in a range of “comical poses”, but many were of luohan doing normal activities like playing the flute. When entering the temple, men should proceed to the left and women to the right, counting one luohan until the number equals their age. Note the number that designates that statue and, on the way out, buy the corresponding “luohan card”, which will tell you your fortune.

Lunch was the most enjoyable part of the day. We got given a gorgeous, leather-bound menu and opened it up to enjoy one of the most delightful sets of English translations I’ve seen yet. One of the options for lunch included an offer of sex, while another one invited me to eat blowing wind.

After lunch, we returned to Wuchang and went to a pretty cool temple complex called Baotong Temple, also one of the four Buddhist temples of Wuhan. The temple was first built in the Liu Song dynasty (420-479) and was called Dongshan Temple (Eastern Mountain Temple). It was renamed Mituo Temple in the Tang dynasty (618-907), Chongnin Wanshou Chan Temple in the Song dynasty (1234-1236) and finally Baotong Chan Temple in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). In its heyday during the Qing dynasty, it had more than 1500 monks but it was demolished during the Xinhai revolution. Rebuilt in 1932, it hosted the President Li Yuanhong’s surpassing ceremony in 1935.

Nowadays, it is a functioning temple. The painting on the temple walls was really beautiful and there are some impressive artefacts, including the Bell of the Song Dynasty and the two stone Lions of the Ming Dynasty.

Hongshan temple, part of the Baotong Temple Complex, is a seven-storey pagoda on top of the hill. We were lucky enough to go inside and climb up the ancient steps to the top of the pagoda. All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not any bigger…the ancient Chinese weren’t very big.