Eyes on China – A China travel Blog

A Story of Creation 
 
In the beginning, there was nothing but chaos and from this sprang a single egg. Inside the egg, Pan Gu (盘古) was growing, and he became so enormous that eventually he broke the egg. Some parts of the egg spiralled high to become the heavens and other parts of the egg sank and became the earth. Pan Gu thought this was beautiful, but he was frightened that somehow the earth and the sky would return to each other and so he put his body between them. For 18,000 years Pan Gu stood between the earth and the sky, continuing to grow and pushing them further and further apart until at last he was exhausted and fell asleep. He never woke again.

Everything has a beginning and an end. QinHuangDao, a coastal city in Hebei province, is a city containing more than one important Asian beginning. I went there to begin my first May Golden week holiday.

QinHuangDao is named after the famous Chinese emperor QinShiHuangDi, the man typically credited with building the great wall. From what I understood while there, he sometimes went to QinHuangDao in the summer to cool off and hang out. Today, the cities ShanHaiGuan and BeiDaiHe seem more popular and touristy. The three cities are close enough together that they don’t really stand out in my head as distinct places, although each sports its own special attractions.

Something about living in China gets under your skin. Whether it’s the job opportunities, friendly, helpful people or the awesome, chiseled rock faces inscribed with Chinese characters (Hanzi), I don’t know. But, living in a remote mountain village has brought about some unexpected changes to my complexion. Literally, something has caused a tremendous outbreak of skin rash and pimples that must be the result of my Chinese diet.
So, I decided to do something about it. I figured if I drink plenty of water and spend some time in a hot springs, it would do my complexion some good.
I had a 3-day weekend the first week in June and wanted to get out of Weixin and explore some hot springs.I discovered that there is a large (and very hot) mountain spring located near the city of Yibin in S.E. Sichuan Province. Yibin is the closest big city from where I am living in N.E. Yunnan Province and have never been up to Sichuan. After doing a Google search, I found out:

Hunting for Chinese Spices

The Yangshuo market is situated at a major three way intersection in the downtown area, at a distance from the westernized Xijie and its shiny souvenirs. On one side of the intersection is a traditional restaurant with a wall-covering picture of several fluffy dogs that look like chow-chows. These cute, adorable dogs are advertising a delicious dogmeat stew restaurant. In Asian medicine, dog meat is considered a high-calorie, warming food. It’s said that high-calorie foods “kai huo” (open the fire) or raise your body temperature and stimulate your system. The low-calorie foods (like cat or chrysanthemum tea) lower your body temperature and are traditional summer foods. I don’t know if cat meat is eaten still in China, but dog meat is a popular Fall and Winter food in some parts of China, especially for older people who have trouble staying warm. I have never tried it though because I have a pet dog at home, and he would not trust me anymore if he found out I ate dog meat.

Chengdu, a beautiful and idyllic city which is the capital city of Sichuan Province, has been endowed with a poetic name—-“the city of Rong”. “Rong” is the abbreviation of peony in ancient China. Peony, which is almost treated as a national flower by Chinese people, is regarded as a symbol of wealthy in China. So that is why Chengdu city turns up to be the most perfect metropolitan in Chinese people’s dream. A great number of cultural celebrities once had leaved over many romantic poems in this heavenly paradise.