This is the seventh in a series of articles and images from NDH correspondent, David Sand, on the road in China with John-Roger, John Morton and 108 traveling peacemakers.
August 21
Things just keep getting better and better. It’s warm but not intolerably so, and there’s some hazy sunshine. At 9:00am we board pedicabs again, headed for another garden–the Garden of the Surging Blue Waves.
Another gorgeous oriental garden, and people are still savoring each one we go to–it’s a very peaceful and relaxed form of tourism. Paul Kaye hands out tickets as we enter and it starts out as more of a social gathering as we congregate in the entrance area.
Then people start spreading out, strolling, sitting, meditating, and the group energy quiets. J-R is talking to a few people on a bench overlooking the pond. Everyone’s paying rapt attention, must be something profound– and as I photograph I try to hear what he’s saying. I pick up little bits and pieces, and it sounds like, of all things, very detailed information on the koi fish in the pond. J-R is looking really radiant this morning–there’s something going on. As the day progresses it all gets straightened out.
We get back in our pedicabs and head to the next garden, “Lion’s Grove”. In order to appreciate these pedicab (bicycle rickshaw) rides, you need to understand the nature of traffic in China. As in many non-western and southern European countries, there aren’t as many precise traffic rules as in the U.S., or if there are, nobody knows about them. Traffic flow resembles a continuously negotiated dance, something like a game of chicken, the right of way being determined by who blinks first.
The interesting Chinese variation on this theme is that the Chinese people seem to have and intuitive, sixth sense about this stuff. There is very little fear, excitement, or emotionalizing going on. Just calm, rather detached drivers and bicyclists negotiating near-misses and swerving at just the right moment as though it were a perfectly natural human function, like breathing or eating. Our pedicabs careen around cars, miss pedestrians’ feet by inches, and, to sum it up, it’s an entertaining ride, but we (or at least I) never feel in any danger.
We arrive at Lion’s Grove Garden and start our usual wandering around. But something’s different. The peaceful energy that started to come in at the first garden becomes stronger and stronger, almost overpowering. As I walk around, people in our group are sitting, staring, sleeping or doing spiritual exercises and just generally not in their bodies. It’s a very beautiful feeling, a deep serenity, and it perfectly mirrors the garden scenery.
Not surprisingly, it’s time for a seminar, and John gets miked up. (In case you’ve never been on one of our trips, we carry small FM transmitters, and everyone brings a radio with headphones, so guides and J-R and John can be heard anywhere by people in our group.) John sits on one bank of a pond, with the rest of us on the other side, or sprawled out on bridges, benches or rocks around the water. (Don’t expect me to recall what John talked about. I do remember a lot of stuff about letting go, and about peace and serenity.)
Then J-R joins him and goes into a long talk about using energy to attract, direct, and influence the movement of the koi fish in the pond, demonstrating with the fish below us, and using the whole experience as a lesson in how to move energy. He briefly talks about how China will be changing a great deal soon, and how those changes will influence the world.
Somehow we all manage to get up for our walk to lunch, and I stop along the way to photograph two little girls. I’m having fun photographing kids and showing them (or their parents) the photo in the LCD monitor of the digital camera. After lunch there are a few hours of free time (time for me to sort through photos; some of us rest at the hotel or go shopping, especially for silks at silk and embroidery factories). At 4:45pm we take a short walk to dinner. Food is starting to improve along with everything else. Lunch was quite good and for dinner tonight it’s Dim Sum.
After dinner we have a special theatrical performance: Chinese drama/opera at a centuries-old traditional theater. We take buses and then walk through the narrow alleys of a somewhat poor but picturesque neighborhood. I don’t know what “poor” really means. People don’t have a lot materially, but there’s a very warm, communal feeling there. People are sitting outside at tables drinking tea on this hot evening, meeting in little video game parlors, hanging out in small restaurants and shops that are adjacent to their homes. Our guide Steve Beimel tells me that this will all be torn down quite soon and people will be put in high rises, with more amenities, in way very similar to what’s happened in the U.S.
The theater complex that we go to is 300 to 500 years old, and includes an outdoor courtyard/theater, museum exhibition, and indoor area where we’ll see the performances. The outdoor area is exceptionally beautiful, with a stage raised one floor up, tables and chairs below, private boxes on the stage level.
We get to go backstage to watch the actors get ready.
The performances are the highly stylized oriental combination of music, singing, dance, spoken word, and mime, and we see selected scenes from a number of different pieces. The actors are such expressive and accomplished mimes that the performance is riveting even though we don’t understand the language or much of the story.
A little musical group accompanies them on the side, and again there’s a very informal and familial feeling, with one musician’s little girl sometimes sitting with the group. During breaks in the performance we get explanations of plot and demonstrations of acting techniques, and a TV company interviews famous American actor Jesus Garcia, who somehow has infiltrated his way into our group.
A walk back through the neighborhood alleys brings us to our buses. We’re back in the hotel by 9:30pm. Luggage has to be out in the hall by 11:00pm, because tomorrow we get on the train to Shanghai.
PS–Joan Witkowski asks that you send Light (she says “Light, NOT concern”) for her good health on the trip.
Click here to view Children of China Special Feature
Click here to view Day 7 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 6 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 5 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 4 of the China Trip
