day 291: [成都 (chengdu)] = 0km

We went to a huge place called 电脑城 (”computer city”) today, which was basically a shopping mall for electronics, much like Beijing’s infamous 中关村 (zhongguancun - August 17th 2008).

I needed a new tripod, a protective sleeve for my new cell phone, and I definitely needed a bunch of TV series to copy to my hard-drive…for the boring and lonely hours, or when I’m just hanging out fixing my pictures.

While the tripod and the mobile sleeve were easy to find though…

…we had to follow this old lady through a couple of back alleys into a private apartment to get the hook-up on DVDs:

Thank you old lady!

Then we went to the 文殊院 (wenshu monastery) in the north part of town:

What a beautiful place:

I had been here before in January 2006, and I remember there was this very nice WC somewhere:

This time I couldn’t find it though, and neither could I find the large prayer hall with the golden seat pads:

But it was fun to be back anyways:

…and the garden seemed greener than ever:

It was also the first time that I noticed all the turtles:

TMNT forever.

…

I figured there were basically two kinds of outside people who liked to burn incense here:

1) grandmas who seemed to come here every day…

…and 2) tourists who dropped by maybe once in a lifetime but seemed to have a much better documentation of it after:

Oh, I almost forgot about the Olympics - aren’t they over and China has won the most gold medals by far?

Well, I found out why:

You see - even the nuns and the monks in this monastery are practicing badminton and ping-pong:

No wonder they kick so much butt!

…

Soundtrack: Georges Moustaki - “Nous Sommes Deux”

—total: 3555,1km