“Journey west” is the title of a popular ancient story in China, seen every day on tv.\u00a0 It involves Monkey, Pig, and other characters.\u00a0 We took our own journey west to Chongqing Municipality where we stayed in 2008–09.\u00a0 We visited three particular people and their families.<\/p>\n
The first was in a new district of Chongqing city, right on the Yangtze River.\u00a0 The apartment complex is new, so new that few apartments are occupied.\u00a0 The landscaping is excellent, especially as viewed from the 15th floor.\u00a0 The apartment is exceptionally clean, modern and bright, small, but efficiently arranged.\u00a0 The hosts, parents of our former student, were warm, friendly, and interested in conversation with us, as interpreted by their daughter.\u00a0 This family enjoys cooking and sharing food. We had duck soup one night, and mutton soup another.\u00a0 At home we had eggs for breakfast, and various tasty dishes at other times, and lots of fruit.\u00a0 We were taken around the city to see the sights and shop in a market specializing in ethnic arts.<\/p>\n
I bought a pair of linen pants with wide legs and embroidery on the front.\u00a0 The effect is of a skirt.\u00a0 I also bought a tiny\u00a0 turtle carved from Dazu stone.\u00a0 It is a stone occurring only in Chongqing. It has layers of light and dark, and the carvers use this to design the carving.\u00a0 It is expensive, but I liked it.\u00a0 I wanted a larger one, but they were too heavy as well as too expensive.\u00a0 I also bought some earrings, typical to a special tribe in China.\u00a0 The women wear lots of silver in high headdresses, necklaces, bracelets and earrings.\u00a0 The ones I bought are heart shaped.\u00a0 I understand that they are an alloy of silver, but they appear to be silver.\u00a0 They will be a gift, because I do not wear earrings.\u00a0 In another store, I bought a tiny black lacquered oval box inlaid with abalone shell flowers. What will I put in the box?\u00a0 Some treasure, some memory of China, something to surprise and delight my grandchildren.<\/p>\n
I have a collection of tiny turtles, carved from wood, jade,\u00a0 stone.\u00a0 Each turtle marks a special time or place, the first one, our honeymoon.\u00a0 In Chinese lore, the turtle stands for longevity.\u00a0 I have always liked the fact that the turtle carries his house with him—so convenient.\u00a0 One year at camp I saw a sand turtle lay her eggs—they looked like opals–bury them, and then walk away into the water.\u00a0 My own children are the jewels I have left behind, trusting that they will live and thrive.<\/p>\n
In the late evening, we went up a high hill to a special place set aside for viewing the city. The buildings were all specially lit for Spring Festival, as were the roads and bridges.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a clear night, crisp and cold.\u00a0 There is one large tree in the plaza on top of the hill, so the place is called “One Tree.”\u00a0 From the plaza, we entered a building and took an elevator even higher up.\u00a0 Spectacular!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Journey west” is the title of a popular ancient story in China, seen every day on tv.\u00a0 It involves Monkey, Pig, and other characters.\u00a0 We took our own journey west to Chongqing Municipality where we stayed in 2008–09.\u00a0 We visited three particular people and their families. The first was in a new district of Chongqing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}