Shanghai, China III

The next visit was Jade Buddha Temple; there is Buddha made out of one Jade. This view reminded me of temples in Japan especially the smell from incense.
According to the tour guide, yellow, is a special color in China. It is used only for the buildings related to the emperor or temples. This is not the building where the Jade Buddha was. There are different temples for different wishes. For example, there was this temple where people come to wish for a baby boy coming to the family.

In China, there is still the one-child-in-a-family rule (I don’t know the official name in English), so each family can have only one child. If a family wishes to have their family name remain for the future, then they certainly need a boy. So, people are very serious about praying for a baby boy. It was amazing to see people, especially old ladies like grandma’s age, were on their knees to pray for their wish.

The main characteristic of this temple, the Jade Buddha, was prohibited for photos. But it was much bigger than what I thought. It is about 3 meter-tall Buddha made out of one jade.

Doesn’t it look like a scene from a Chinese movie?

Even though we were still within the temple (supposedly a holly place), the sales pitch started again. This time, we were brought to a tea house. We tasted four different kinds of teas. First, a lady pours hot water into this this long cup (about 4cm tall) and distribute to the tea tasters. We take the cup and hold with both hands and warm them by rolling it. Next, the lady pours hot water into the tea pot that already contains tea leaves in it, and throws out the water to wash the leaves. Then, she pours hot water again into the tea pot and pours into the long cup after emptying the hand-warmer water. Finally, she covers the long cup with the shorter (round) one and flips upside down; the long cup is standing in the shorter one. Finally, the cups are distributed to the guests, me, I taste the tea in the short cup after lifting up the long cup. What a long tea ceremony to just taste a cup of tea…
Different kinds of tea leaves are stored in those clear bins. The interesting one to me was the tea that tastes a big sweet even though there is no sugar in the tea. I took a little bite of the tea leaf, and strangely, it is really sweet!
It seems Chinese people differentiate when to drink which tea. When I say different kinds, it is like tea for good night sleep, stress, weight loss, digestion and stuff.

As my tour guide mentioned, Shanghai has changed significantly for the past fifteen years. There are many rich high rise residential buildings for rich or foreign people, but there are still local people who have been living there from a long time ago. Some of the local people used to live in houses, but during the city development, the government moved them into apartments. Or some other people live in very old original buildings. In Shanghai, you can see the both sides; rich and poor, or new and old, mixed into one city.

According to my tour guide, she used to live with her grandparents and parents in a room (not a house or apartment) that was about ten square meters. She said that the size was about our tour bus (perhaps 20 people can ride). And the room was divided by curtains. The room is just a room, not toilet. There was a public toilet outside as well as a kitchen. She said that her mother used to cook in a shared kitchen with neighbors. Toilet was a wooden box with a whole berried into the ground. This was not from a very senior person, but coming out of a 27 year-old woman. It was unbelievable. It really reminded me of China being communist. Now, she says she has two private apartments on her own. What a change!

Regarding income, her mother works as a police woman and used to earn about four dollars a month. Those people who worked in private factories used to make nine dollars a month, so her family was the poor side. But within a few years, her mother’s income has increased significantly and now she earns four-hundred dollars. What about the guys working at the private factories? They lost their jobs during the economy growth (bankruptcies).
She says that the average income now is about four-hundred dollars (I think), but it was definitely much lower than Japan or any other developed countries. And she had a good point. She says that even though there are a significant difference in incomes, Starbucks sells coffee for the same price as any other countries. But the interesting part of this is that people still like to go get Starbucks coffee. I think people are not really after the coffee but the self-satisfaction of the fact that they can afford the three-dollar coffee.

After seeing such city, Shanghai, I thought about Japan after the World War II which is only sixty years ago. I think the situation was very similar to Shanghai. I think that my grandparent generation was dreaming of being rich with the fast developing country, and they were working really hard to get their children to have wealthy lives.

It is amazing the fact that there is so much to learn by visiting different countries. Not only looking at “now”, but because there was “then” we have “now”. I would say countries that are currently considered to be “fast growing” are working very hard the “now” which will be considered “then” in the near future. I hope that their children or grandchildren will recognize the efforts.