day 289: [成都 (chengdu)] = 0km

向鸿彬 (xiang hongbin) cut me loose in the city today.

She was planning to go shopping with one of her girlfriends, and I didn’t like shopping, and they didn’t want to go shopping with me anyways, so I was free to roam the crowded streets…

…and dissolve within the masses:

Ha!

I wasn’t planning on getting lost though – instead I was aiming straight for the 天府广场 (tianfu square), because I had been there before and I wanted to see how the old Chairman was doing these days.

There is a photograph from January 2006, when I had been here for the first time:

You know how I always love trying to find out how the people of China deal with this part of their history (idols coming to town, role models, a smile, rounding up the capital, Scandinavia, same old story: rain to drizzle) – and I clearly remember the strange feeling of an epiphany when I had noticed the laundry hanging there right next to the Chairman’s statue.

It had looked just so charmingly… nonchalant.

…

Now, in the summer of 2008, things had changed though:

Much to my surprise actually.

…

There were lots of tiny voices across the street, so I decided to take a fresh look at the whole scenario, a look from a different perspective.

I wanted to see what the Chairman looked like with the future in the foreground:

Oh, and the future was there…

…playing like crazy:

Then some dude in a uniform told them to stay away from the water:

I think it was out of concern that something might happen to the future.

…

Later that day, when I looked over the pictures I had taken of the Chairman, I noticed that a tile was missing next to his right foot though:

I really don’t think he would have liked that.

…

Then I went to the famous 武侯祠 (wuhou temple):

Yep, you guessed it – I had been there before as well, and I am not going to spare you of the pictures from the time I went with my friend Dario:

It was in February 2007, and we had dressed up as generals from the “三国演义” (“the Romance of the Three Kingdoms”):

I love these pictures.

…and I realize I enjoy dressing up (sightseeing overkill).

Whatever.

This time I didn’t have a friend with me though, so I wandered quietly about the place:

Very, very quietly:

Not asleep yet?

When I came to a place where I had taken a picture of myself in January 2006…

…I took another one today:

Okay, I can imagine you want me to stop rambling about myself and rather try to give you an idea what the temple is all about?

Well here it is:

No, not the pot in the foreground – it’s the grave mound in the back that’s the reason for the whole site.

The emperor 刘备 (liu bei) from the period of the “Three Kingdoms” (三国 220-280 A.D.) was interred here, and different dynasties after him have been constantly rebuilding new temple structures to commemorate him:

By the way, we have already seen his two best friends before on the way: there is 张飞 (zhang fei – student day), and there is the legendary 关羽 (guan yu – misconceptions in foreign media, salt lake city, my firecrackers).

What’s interesting though – besides these three friends, each renown for their loyalty and their bravery on the battlefield, there is a certain fourth one who is probably even more revered than the three (maybe except for 关羽):

诸葛亮 (zhuge liang), strategic advisor to emperor 刘备. His foremost attribute: intelligence that can only be described as superior.

He’s got his own shrine in the temple…

…and interestingly enough, it is located behind the shrine of emperor 刘备:

Hint: almost all of China’s palaces and temples have a certain order, ranging from the barracks in the front to the most important buildings in the back.

This would thus put 诸葛亮 in a superior position to his own emperor 刘备 – had it not been for the fact that the emperor’s shrine is on higher ground than the one of his strategic advisor. But then I am thinking: they could have just raised the ground in the back of the temple a few feet and then put the emperor’s shrine in the back, couldn’t they?

Okay, now maybe I’m confused.

武侯祠 is not a Buddhist or a Taoist temple by the way. Instead, it is entirely dedicated to these historical figures from the “Three Kingdom”-period who have attained legendary status in the course of the centuries.

I found one little Buddha statue though, it was quietly sitting on top of a roof somewhere:

…

When I left the temple after closing time, the tourist streets where still busy as hell:

Time for me to go.

Soundtrack: Ugly Kid Joe – “Cats In The Cradle”

—total: 3555,1km