chinese beauty
(I wrote this whole post the other day and about three minutes from the end, the electricity went out. that’s china for ya)
we’ve spent the past two days in the chilled-out, quaint little city of pingyao. it’s so nice to have a chance to kick back and relax after several days of “hardcore” travelling – long gritty bus rides, dodgy hotel rooms, and lots of communication and technical difficulties. all the better that the place to relax is as lovely and charming as pingyao.
there is much about china that is beautiful. and there is much that is not.
having pretty much seen the entirety of the little market town the first day, today we headed a little further afield out the the shaughlin si – a temple full of ancient buddhist sculpture, which until recently had been allowed to moulder away in oblivion.
we decided to walk out there, as it was only abou 5km away and the guidebook described it as a pastoral stroll. in reality, we eneded up following the railroad tracks along the side of the highway, like two lunatic westerners, sucking in all the fumes and dirt and coal dust, waving off the innumerable solicitations by the taxis and tuk tuks who all thought we were nuts. by the end, i was sure they were right.
the temple was once again as paradoxical as the rest of china. irreplaceable sculpture rotting away under a thick layer of pollution and grime, but currently being “restored” with clay replicas replacing the originals. beauty which is only valued once the tourism potential is realised, and the authenticity destroyed in favour of what they think people want to see. unique and incomparable and extraordinary and polluted and exploited and a little sad. just like china.
we took a taxi back.
