Animalia Exotica

We were fortunate enough to have the guide services of a fellow engineer today, and with his help we left the hotel at 9 am this morning (China time, that is), bound for a place called the Confucious Temple. We took the subway. You can go anywhere the subway goes for two yuan, or about thirty cents. Not a bad deal. We arrived to discover the Confucious Temple is one of the two large shopping districts in Nanjing. We entered a labyrinth of narrow streets lined with dealers of every kind. After wandering through the thicket of shops and shoppers, we emerged near the Confucious Temple. I'm not sure what, in the minds of the Chinese, links the realms of moral philosophy and trinket shopping, but the bond is pretty strong near the Confucious Temple. Anyway, it cost 30 yuan to enter the temple. Inside was the history of the life of Confucious explained in a series of carved portraits of precious stones. They were gorgeous, and though I couldn't read the Chinese narration, I came away with the impression that Confucious had a very beautiful, albeit rocky, life...!!! Good one, I know. I've worked hard to become a master of the lowest form of humor.

We left the temple and wandered through the streets of shops again on our way back to civilization. I didn't do much shopping because I didn't want to burden my compadres, but I'll probably go back some other time and buy some silly Chinese things. I especially want some t-shirts with broken English phrases. Diego saw a Nike bag he liked though, and against the advice of our guide, he paid a whopping 30 yuan, or five bucks, for it. It is a black Nike bag with a shoulder strap. Though its almost definitely fake, if it lasts until the end of the day without disintegrating into fine dust it will have been worth five dollars, that's for sure. While Diego was shopping and our guide was trying to get him to stop shopping, I was looking at the animals for sale in the market. Animals! They had turtles and gerbils and rabbits and fish and, lo and behold, puppies! I was ecstatic to find so many animals and I spent a lot of time looking at them and taking pictures of them and loving them, in general. But the state in which these animals were kept put a damper on my happiness. The turtles were stacked all on top of each other in a bin like they were toys for sale, and the puppies didn't have near enough space to move around. This was a concern echoed among our group many times later when we were at the zoo.


We left the Confucious Temple area and went to a fancy garden. I'm still not sure what this place was, but it was pretty and had a pond with big fish in it, and lots of rock formations to walk on, in and around. We spent about an hour there before leaving to get some lunch. I accidentally made us go to a really nice, expensive restaurant by asking about it as we walked by. By the look on our guide's face after the meal was over, I imagine the food was absurdly expensive, but it sure was fun. They brought us one dish with some dry ice in a cup of water, boiling mist over all the food. We drank watermelon juice, and ate tomatoes shaped like rabbits. Good times were had by all.


And the zoo!! Overall, it was a good experience. Seeing all the different animals made me indecently happy, especially the fabled panda bear. Diego and I even got to ride a camel! (One at a time, that is.) I don't think I'll ever get over my fascination with animals and biology in general, and in this respect it was a great trip. But as I already mentioned, the treatment of the animals put a damper on the experience. The elephants lived in a filthy mud hole, the penguins were too hot and some of the fish hardly had room to turn around in their tank. Granted, China has bigger fish to fry. But it was disheartening nonetheless, especially watching people feed the bears and monkeys PLASTIC-WRAPPED FOOD with no concern for the well-being of the animals. Luckily, these guys were smarter than the average bear and were able to remove the plastic before eating the cookies wrapped inside. It was all I could do to keep from screaming at the people who kept throwing them food, but I stopped myself and analyzed the root of my anger, and whether it was maybe okay to feed zoo animals people food. After much deliberation, I decided it still wasn't okay. The picture of the Mongolian bear pretty much sums up the situation. And the picture of the little kid in the balloon thing. But I think he was enjoying himself.

Man oh man, I'm going to have to shorten these blogs. Or have less adventures. Had some more Dairy Queen tonight. And got a foot massage from a man. It was a little weird. It transformed the experience from, "I'm tired and I want a lady to touch my feet for awhile," to "Excuse me, good sir, in the course of my daily activities it has come to my attention that my feet are in dire need of relaxation. Would you be interested in performing this service for me in exchange for a nominal payment?" Not quite as fun. But just as relaxing.