There was this emperor, Lord Bao, who was born in Hefei and become the emperor of China some 1,000 years ago.  So, he is a pretty big cheese here.  Got an entire lake named after him.  So, they have a temple named after him and we went and visited it.

The temple was, you can imagine, on the river bearing his name.  They had tons of lily pads out in the river.  In the summer I am sure the area is beautiful.

What temple would be worth anything without the incense burner?

This is the big man himself, all in gold.

And here are his guards.

Apparently, if he wasn’t happy with you, he would cut off your head.  However, which knife he used to accomplish this was dependent upon your status.  If you were wealthy of of high status, you got the lion sword.  If you were middle glass, you got the tiger sword.  And, if you were poor, you got the dog sword.  This are the actual swords used to dish out his punishment!

Ali and Brittany posed in front of an etching of Lord Bao.

They had an inner garden were they had information about Lord Bao’s life.

From his birth to his death, there was a large panoramic intricate wooden carving that depicted the major events in his life.  The craftsmanship on this thing was amazing.  The closer you looked the more amazed you were by the intricate aspects of the cravings.

Cherry was great explaining all the different aspects of his life and what was being represented in the carvings.

We were able to get her to take a little family portrait of us all!

Brittany looks a little guilty here, doesn’t she???

The sisters take turns getting and taking pictures on the lion statues at the entrance to the temple.

This is a special well on the property.  Apparently a bad person took a drink out of it and killed him.  Or, maybe it was bacteria.  We will never know.  I sure didn’t drink from it!

The girls and I did take a little portrait up there, though.

Next, Cherry took us into a wax museum they had on the property.  There were three or four different stories that were told that were important events during Lord Bao’s reign.  Cherry took the opportunity to quiz us at each display for our impressions and what was going on before she told us the actual story.  I think she was just trying to fill time, but it was interesting.  Ali enjoyed using my camera and took a few pictures.  This is one of them!

As is this.  Not sure how to explain “shutter speed” and “available light” to someone who doesn’t speak your language?

Here are some of the wax figures.  You would swear they were moving!

There was a park area around the back of the temple where we went for a little while and took some additional pictures.

On our way out of the park …

Cherry asked us if we would like to take part in a survey.  She asked us a dozen or so questions, all of which she knew the answers to, and waited for us to respond to each one. Ali took this picture, also.  Don’t you love the look on Kelly’s face?  Why are you asking me this?

We asked Cherry to take us to an authentic restaurant that she liked and she took us to one right by our hotel.

The food was very good and for all five of us, Cherry, and our driver, the bill was about $15.  Nice!  Our driver is great.  He always makes sure that the restaurant goes and gets forks for us idiot Westerners!  Not all of us are as adept at chopsticks as the locals!

Kelly was brave and tried some dumplings that, while looked somewhat suspect, were very delicious!!

After returning to the hotel, I had to go change some money with Cherry.  Two interesting things out of that conversation.  First, I was showing her a picture on my iPhone.  You can’t use it here without racking up tons of roaming charges, but I do keep it with me for the Chinese translation program that we use.  Anyway, the day before she and I had a conversation around my company car, something that she found amazing.  While showing her my iPhone it came out that my company has also provided that for my use.  She told me at that point that my company was Welfare!  I laughed out load!

Second, she pointed out that one of the tellers at the bank had on a pink smock and that she must be pregnant.  She told me that this smock was specially designed and that it had a light layer of shielding in it that protected the baby from all the harmful radiation coming from computers and printers!  She was shocked when I told her I had never seen that before and, while I sure you can buy it in America, it wasn’t commonly used.  She thought that the idea actually came from the US.  At $100 per smock, it is pretty pricey, but she said that with one child policy, no one was willing to take any chances!

That night, we went on a quest to find a scarf vendor Abby had seen on the street the night before.  On the way, Ali dragged us into a little boutique.  Girls are so much different than boys!

On the way out, the girls had a good time walking arm-in-arm up the Walking Street!

While the scarf vendor was NOT where she was the previous day, we did find her pretty quickly and the girls looked at her various wares.

In the end we got six scarfs for about $16.  I tried to get the lady to deal with me, but she would only come down about $1.50.  Abby was pretty happy with the purchase, so I didn’t feel too bad.  

Everywhere we go, we draw quite a crowd, especially Abby with her blond, curly hair!  We are looked and stared at so much that we often don’t think about it (well … I don’t.  The girls complain a lot).  While I was taking these pictures, I noticed that a small crowd was standing behind the railing watching the girls every move.  I took a quick picture so you could see what it is like living in a fish bowl!

We took our purchases and headed home to our hotel.  Time to pack up the bags as we head to Guangzhou tomorrow night!

Cameron