Niewan

Up at 5:30 for a 7 o’clock departure. We were happy to be able to What’s App all our children and grandchildren.

Today we will go to the Shaolin Temple for a demonstration of Kung fu. It is also known for Zen Buddhism.Zhengzhou has 10 million people. In the 7th century there were 1,000 monks there. During Ming dynasty in the 17th century, there were 3,000 monks.

In 1928, there were 2 warlords who fought, burned the temple. The fire burned for 49 days.

Now there are 35,000 students at the temple. People send their boys here in order to give them the opportunity for a better job, as security guards, bank guards and personal guards.

There are two trees planted by an Japanese monk and a Chinese monk to represent harmony between the two countries that are 800 years old. Unfortunately that harmony has not lasted as long as the trees. One can light incense and pray to the gods.

There is a forest containing 200 pagodas that are the burial places of zen monks. The larger the number of tiers, the bigger the contribution of the monk. They always only contain an odd number of tiers as odd numbers represent celibacy.

After a lovely lunch, the best one of the trip,we began the 2-hour bus ride to the train station, at least we hope it’s only 2 hours as it is the holiday weekend and there are many people travelling back to their hometowns to honour their dead relatives.

Our train leaves at 6 so we need to be there with timely spare because of all of the other travellers. Arrived at the train station at 4:30, with time enough to have good old western food for dinner. McDonald’s and KFC were the only western food choices so that’s what we had. Good to eat familiar food for a change.

The bullet train travelled at speeds up to 301 kmph and got us back to Beijing in 3 hours. Many people want to have their photo taken with members of our group. We do stick out with our white skin and grey hair.

This is our last night in China. It has been an amazing journey and it will be good to be home again.Read more