Guangzhou - Day 11 - Buddhist Temple, Chen House

Today our group had an optional tour to the Six Banyan Tree Buddhist Temple, as well as the Chen House.

The temple was gorgeous and Steve took all sorts of photos (more than I can post here), but we were lucky that a monk was available to give (for the families that wanted one) a Buddhist blessing of their children. I'm guessing it was close to 800 degrees inside the temple, but it was worth it - the beautiful chanting, the Joss stick incense, and amazing artwork and statues surrounding us. We kneeled on the floor and Lia stayed reasonably quiet and motionless in my lap for the duration of the blessing. At the end, the monk came by and sprinkled water over all the babies' heads - similar to a Christian baptismal ceremony. It was lovely and we were so glad we did it!

Six Banyan Tree Temple

Inside the temple, three Buddhas represent your past, present and future lives

The monk chanting the blessing on our kids

Lia getting her Buddhist blessing

After the temple, we visited the "Chen House".  Chen is the biggest family surname in Guangzhou (similar to Smith or Anderson in the U.S.). This historic building is now home to displays of many types of Chinese folk arts - paper cutting, enamel, tapestry, jade, etc.  The detail of the building itself was an intricate combination of carved woodwork, marble, and jade - just amazing!

The courtyard at the Chen House

The entrance at the Chen House...

the giant doors have Generals painted on them to ward off evil spirits and enemies

Lia and her new friend Sophie (Amy's daughter)

It seems they were wondering WHY these people keep dragging us

out to these boring places in this hot weather.

As mentioned, it was so hot today it was like walking on the sun...so when we came back to the hotel around 12:30 pm, Steve ran out and got us takeout burgers from Lucy's while I got Lia fed and down for her nap.

At 4 pm I had to go finish up some immigration paperwork with the other parents. Then at 5:30 we all met up to go the Thai restaurant in town - The Cow and Bridge. The food (and the company) were terrific! We ordered Lia some bean curd off the "baby menu", but she ended up preferring our pan-fried noodle dish more. We're figuring out quickly that we don't need to order special food for her - she is happier sharing whatever we are eating.

During dinner, a huge rainstorm blew into town. Lightening, thunder, and basically a torrential downpour...thankfully our guides brought umbrellas from the hotel, so we were all able to run three blocks in ankle-deep water with the strollers - but were all still completely soaked by the time we got back to the hotel. Luckily it was time for jammies and bed anyway, so we peeled off the wet clothes and got snuggled in for the night.

For folks wondering how I have the time to blog every day - we tend to do this while Lia is napping or after she has gone to bed. Honestly - there's not much else to do! The television options are VERY limited in the rooms. Most of the stations are in Chinese, and then there are news networks (CNN, BBC, etc.), a cartoon/kids network, and HBO (but it's not like HBO at home, the movies are very limited and tend to be very violent). So thank god for laptops and the internet! 

Tomorrow afternoon Lia goes back for her final three immunizations. Wish us luck. We saved the last of her favorite snacks for this trip, so that she will have a treat afterwards. Poor kid. Other than that - we have no other appointments or tours tomorrow, so depending on how she feels (and how hot it is) we may just do some shopping in the area around the hotel. We heard about a great French restaurant nearby, so we may try that for dinner tomorrow night. It's nice to have more food options now. We both like Asian food, but 10 days in a row it gets pretty old... Goodnight from Guangzhou.