mrsjono

After the 12 hours bus ride, I went along for the Tibet dinner (60yuan pp) with much reluctance. There was another lady who came alone and two brothers from Germany. Both of them don't understand Chinese and they looked scared and lost. When the Tibetans started the karaoke and forced them to drink, they took off lol. We were served some Tibetan snacks and given an introduction of their culture and traditions. They taught us some Tibet language. 帅哥 is called "se4 lang2" and 美女 is called "se4 mu2". 大帅哥 is da se lang. Duhz. They told us Tibet girls like guys who wear specs. They sang songs and danced and we were supposed to shout Ya soh ya soh ya ya soh! which means 再来一首! or Encore! Everyone was supposed to sing a song and when it was my turn, I said what every other normal person would say "No, I can't sing." So the Tibet folks started to drag me out of my seat and I was screaming Nooooooo! profusely. As punishment, I got threw up into the air three or four times. It was quite shiok actually. The guys thought they could get away the same way but they were asked to bottoms up a bowl or three cups of beer or something. They kept refilling our cups and asking us to bottoms-up. I think I gulped down like six cups of barley beer cos they were really insistent. At the end of the dinner, I had difficulties walking properly but I was still sober while the guys were drunk like dead fishes.

That guy on my right is a 大色狼, in Chinese, not Tibetan terms. He not only tried to eat my toufu can, and said some er xin things to me. He said "我觉得你很漂亮. 我很喜欢你." 贱货!!! I didn't say that though. I said "Oh 谢谢你!" and ran away lol.

That's him! Lech! Disgusting!

Everyone was supposed to join in the dance but I got away by pretending to be occupied taking photos and videos

茂县叠溪海子/叠海湾

I never knew much about Taoism till I attended a lecture on Taoism in March. I was rather impressed and enlightened with the teachings of Taoism (compiled in the book 道德经); profound, philosophical and full of paradoxes and contradictions which are applicable to our daily life.

The teaching of Laozi is based on a great underlying principle, 道, or the Way, which is "the source of all being, the governor of all life, human and natural, and the basic undivided unity in which all contradictions and distinctions of existence are ultimately resolved. This can be captured in a central concept of Taoism - 无为, which is often expressed by the paradox "为无为", meaning action without action. The way of life is to "do nothing"; to be accepting and yielding. ("The way to do is to be.") This is characterized by Water through its yielding nature. Water is soft but strong as nothing can tear, repair or wear water. One should be flexible like how water flows, to serve as we go along. ("Those who flow as life flows knows.")

The following is my essay (minus the photos; photos were in my presentation) for my module Chinese Culture & Society. I was supposed to report on a trip I've made in China so I decided on Mt QingCheng, one of the birthplaces of Taoism. It is written from a sociological point of view, in an attempt to apply what I have learnt from the Sociology of Tourism (i spent quite some time staring at mw's essay just to get some ideas and inspiration-u might find some quotes familiar lol) and my humble understanding of Taoism, which started out as a way of life and became a religion later.

My trip to Mt Qing Cheng can be summarized as “Nothingness” (from the English translation of 无为) as I learnt almost nothing from the trip.

The money-spinning tourism industry has lured the local community to jump onto the bandwagon by offering a “cheaper alternative” to tourists. We were “coaxed” into entering Mt Qing Cheng via the “back door” route which would enable us to avoid paying 10 yuan to cross the bridge and 70 yuan to take the cablecar up the mountain plus a filling home-cooked meal for lunch all for 75 yuan (student price). We only realized they had “swallowed” the entrance tickets by leading us through a different route and distributed the money among themselves after climbing for a few hours.