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We're back. Some of us thought we'd never call Charlotte the land of milk and honey, but we found ourselves saying so as we took the elevator down to baggage claim. Thanks to the John Belk International Program for this great trip that opened many of our eyes and hearts.
Our last few days in China were packed with travel by air: from Lhasa to Chengdu in Sichuan Province, to Beijing, to Tokyo, to Detroit, to our home in Charlotte.
For our one day in Chengdu in Sichuan Province (known to Westerners for it hot and spicy cuisine), we visited Qingyang Temple. A Daoist temple, it exemplified the Daoist belief in a life and universe of what we Westerners call yin and yang. Unlike the head-shaven monks and nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist temples, the Daoist monks wore white tunics and trousers, had beards, and coiled and rolled their long hair atop their heads.
We also visited the Thatched Cottage of Du Fu, acknowledged as China's patron saint of poetry. Until recently, Chinese primary-school students were required to memorize and recite two of his poems. Unlike our Shakespeare, this Tang Dynasty poet (712-770 A.D.) wrote lyrics, short poems about the emperor and about Du Fu's own thoughts about his life: the stream near his hut, his growing baldness, his friendship with Li Bai, another poet famous to Westerners via the translations of Ezra Pound, and his mortality. On these 20 bamboo- and gingko-covered acres in the middle of China's most populous province, we found a little time for reflection.
With our last full day in China came one of the long-anticipated highlights of the trip: the Giant Panda Research Center. On 200 acres of soft hills, these animal symbols of the Middle Kingdom are given the chance to live a safe and protected life, and to perpetuate their endangered species. As a special bonus, some of us got to hold the Giant Panda's close relative, the red panda. Red pandas are a size bigger than a good-sized tomcat and have raccoon-like tails and faces.
Final superlatives
(based on informal polling):
- Person voted least likely to surrender microphone during Karaoke Night: Daniel Campbell
- Person voted most likely to appear in Dr. Fauchier's clothing: Eric Agrabrite
- Persons voted most likely to appear as a trio: Katie Goodman, Angela Cortellino, Samantha Simmons
- Persons voted most likely to show grace under pressure: Danielle Jarchow, Dan Brown
- Road most likely to be seen (from the safety of our tour bus) being dynamited because of poor driving conditions: Friendship Highway between Shigatse and Lhasa, Tibet.
— Charles M. Israel
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