May 13th, Hefei and Lord Bao's Temple
May 13th found us again walking out into Hefei. Also, our local guide Mr. Ding had planned a trip for us to Lord Bao's Temple. This year was the 1001 anniversary of his death. Isabella was doing great! Although she gave us a bit of a scare. Over the past day and a half she had refused to drink her bottle! We were all getting a little worried. Today while Jenn completed the last bit of paperwork, Ben headed to the noodle shop with a few travel mates and their children. He was actually discussing Bella's eating problem when she reached into his bowl, grabbed a fist full of spicy noodles and solved the problem herself. That was the end of formula and she never looked back! By the time we left china she was eating congee, egg, chicken, noodles (and more noodles!), bean curd, tofu and sampling just about anything she could get her hands on. We also headed out to Parksons and grabbed a whole slew of baby food for her. She loved everything but the strained broccoli, and after tasting it ourselves, we couldn't blame her!
We had decided on our way back from downtown to stop at a small park just across the street from our hotel. As was becoming usual, we drew a small crowd. The gentleman smiling with the cigarette in his hand actually ran off, grabbed some friends and bodily dragged them back to us. You can see Bella sizing everyone up.
This gentleman is obviously proud of his grandson. We saw him while walking downtown. He saw us with Bella and we met to show of our children. He was so proud he asked us to take a picture of the two of them.
The entrance to Lord Bao's Temple. We were told this was the most beautiful place in Hefei. When we arrived the grounds and temple were certainly beautiful, but it was surrounded by a flat field of sticky mud! Shortly after our arrival we were told that the mud was actually a moat and it had been drained for the first time in many hundreds of years for dredging and cleaning. Suddenly the archaeologist in me yearned to get down there and poke around!
A small pagoda inside the temple grounds. Bella's a bit hard to see because she was snoozing at this point. We had a lot of fun at this temple, and Mr. Ding spent about an hour explaining the significance of everything we saw inside and the story of Lord Bao. Afterwards we were free to wander around for a bit. The gift shop was great, and it was there that we purchased a book which highlighted Hefei and which we still enjoy looking at.
This is Lord Bao (well, a likeness of him) cast in gold. The interior of the temple was really well appointed. Lord Bao was flanked by several golden warriors on either side. He was a statesman, judge, philosopher and all around historical guy and is studied throughout China much like Americans study Abe Lincoln or George Washington.
After we returned from the temple, we enjoyed a relaxing few hours in our room with Bella, and then headed to the revolving restaurant on the 29th floor for dinner. The buffet was something out of heaven! Foods from all over Asia, and a lot of Western food as well. After dinner, it was back to the room and we sorted through paperwork in preparation to head off to Guangzhou! Soon we would be at the fabled White Swan Hotel!
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