Central China Travel Blog

I’ll be honest: China wasn’t on my list of favorite destinations. To me China was just the place where they make the cheap products we find in every market nowadays. I didn’t realize the future is there and it has almond eyes.
With its 32 million inhabitants, Shanghai is the most populous city in the world. In its metropolitan area, it hosts about half of the inhabitants of the whole of Italy. Managing flows is therefore essential and I’m surprised by the lack of traffic jams and silence in the streets.

What is the most romantic city in the world? Undoubtedly Venice, followed by Paris of course. Chinese people decided to copy both. In fact, Tongli does not resemble Venice at all, except for the fact that it is a floating city, but it does not intend to replicate any aspect of it. Tongli is a thousand year old town, built on the delta of the Yangtze River. It is spread over 7 islets: 15 small canals run through the city and 49 bridges, built in different eras, connect the historic center. Most of the buildings are from the Ming and Qing era, when Tongli became the residence of nobles and artists who moved there to enjoy its beauty.

Think of something powerful enough to slow Earth’s orbit. Can’t you? I do. It’s the Three Gorges Dam in China. The data speak for themselves: 2,309 meters wide, it is not only the largest dam in the world but also the most powerful hydroelectric power plant. Its basin is more than 600 km long and contains an average of 22 billion cubic meters of water. It is such a mass accumulation it has produced a slowdown of Earth’s orbit. According to NASA, the Three Gorges Dam has lengthened our days by 0.06 microseconds.
Nothing too considerable, but it remains a surprising fact.

The statues of Dazu are a series of religious sculptures dating from the 7th century A.D. scattered in the hills around Dazu, near Chongqing. Realized as devotional tributes, they represent images of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Chinese lives have been shaped for over a millennium through the words of Gautama Buddha, Confucius’ behavioral principles and Taoist mysticism. The very idea there is a religious site where these three different beliefs coexist, mixing, is exciting. And its dimensions are surprising: over the course of over two centuries, prefects, monks, nobles and common people have carved into the rock over 50,000 statues with over 100,000 inscriptions and epigraphs. In 1999, the statues of Dazu were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is a conservation center where visitors can observe giant pandas in their natural habitat. Founded in 1987, the centre is home to an astonishing 83 units. Visitors are allowed in the center all year round, but the peak of tourist season comes in August. And so do I. We arrive by taxi early in the morning and there is already a long queue. The heat is intense. We understand immediately it makes no sense to respect the order of arrival. People push and overtake each other all the time. It’s a human blob caothically rushing to the ticket office. We bring out our Mediterranean spirit and in ten minutes we get inside the park.

Miralepa Palace is a Buddhist temple located in the Chinese province of Gansu. What makes it unique is its unusual structure: it is a 9-storey tower, surrounded by prayer wheels. Each storey actually contains a temple of its own, dedicated to a spiritual leader of the past or present. It is a triumph of carpets, statues, Bodhisattva paintings, scrolls and yak butter candles. The eye cannot grasp the richness of the details at once.
I would like to photograph everything but… “NO PICTURES!” shouts a voice from a speaker.

Langmusi is the name of a Buddhist monastery founded in 1748 at the eastern end of the Tibetan plateau. Set like a gem on the border line between Gansu Province and Sichuan, at an altitude of 3000 m, it is surrounded by mountains and alpine forests. Currently it houses about 1,000 monks, while the small village built near the monastery has 3,000 inhabitants.

It is dawning in Langmusi and we decide to reach the temple. Faithful of all ages walk around the walls: it is the “kora”, a form of meditation very common in Tibetan Buddhism. After each tour, the faithful stop to kiss the temple door. No one pays attention to me, except a bunch of old men, sitting on a bench. They observe the others doing the kora and give their contribution by praying with a small prayer wheels and akshamala (Tibetan rosaries).

Located 3000m high, in a valley between the mountains of the Tibetan plateau, Labrang is one of the 6 largest monasteries of Buddhism. Founded in 1709, it belongs to the religious school of the Gelugpa, also known as “Yellow Hat School”, whose supreme head is the Dalai Lama. It occupies almost 900 hectares of land and includes 10,000 rooms, painted white, red and yellow depending on their function. It is home to a university, which has a large library, and many important rituals and ceremonies take place here. The monastery also houses the highest number of monks living outside Tibet. In the past there were 4,000 monks but today the Chinese government has limited the number to about 1,500.

I travel to the silent Ganja grasslands, Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. This place is real, it’s not a dream. I enter silently in one of the temples: the monks are making votive candles with yak butter. We greet each other with our gaze. With gestures I ask if I can stay, they smile and nod. Yes and no are universal concepts. Kindness is also universal, I think. Everyone understands it and everyone appreciates it. And with kindness a boy approaches me, waving a bunch of keys…