More Temples and Some Tea

Nov 14

This morning Gerald, Jyl, Charlotte, Sid  and I join 8 others at Yu Garden in Shanghai for a Tea and Temple Tour led by Tracy and Michael.

We visit three temples - the first one is the Cheng Xiang Ge  Buddist Temple and Tracy shares some of the Buddhist philosophies. 

  In summary they include - leading a moral life, being mindful and aware of thoughts and actions and to develop wisdom and understanding.  Buddhist teachings include the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path.  

There are several male and female monks at this temple.

The next Temple is the Cheng Huang Miao Daoist (Tao) Temple.

  Taoism is a religion of unity and opposites: Yin and Yang, which sees the world as filled with complementary forces.  The Tao is not a God and is not worshipped. 

  Taoism promotes achieving harmony or union with nature, the pursuit of spiritual immortality, being virtuous and self development.  Taoist practices include meditation, feng shui, fortune telling and reading and chanting of scriptures.

The third stop is the Wen Miao Si Confucius Temple. (This is the temples reflection in the pond)

 Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political and religious teaching built up by Confucius and the ancient Chinese traditions. 

  Confucianism goal is making not only the man virtuous, but also making him man of learning and good manners.  Confucianism embraces not only the teachings of Confucius, but also the traditional customs and rites of the past.

Gerald and Jyl are wearing their City of Lacombe t-shirts and have their photo op

Notable Confucianism's:

"Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it"
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop"
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but getting up every time we do"

After lunch at the Moonlight Tea House we are part of a tea ceremony. 

  The tea tree grows in 19 of the 26 provinces in China, there is only one tea tree.  The varieties of tea include  the growth stage of the tea harvest, the region the tea is grown as well as the processing of the tea leaf.

We taste 5 types of tea 

 Yellow, Green, Wu Long, Red and Black.  The darker teas have more caffeine and less anti toxins, the darker teas require more processing (fermentation). 

  The best quality tea comes from the spring harvest. I like the Red tea best.

On our walk back to where Bruce is waiting for us we pass through some side streets.  No vacation would be complete without a picture of eggs.  

These are sold as fermented eggs.  The are coated with spices and left in mud for three months! 

Vegetables offered for sale

and of course fresh duck

We see this puppy (with better grooming than some of the locals!)

and I think of our sweet Maxine at home....