As my stay in Shanghai lengthens I'm getting more chances to get out and experience the rich history and cultural attractions the central kingdom has to offer, but I'm still a kid at heart.
The famous Jade Buddha Temple is a taste of old China nestled in the thick of downtown among skyscrapers and the shrill shriek of frantic taxicabs. It's a place of splendiferous beauty where monks and commoners can come to worship in serenity among frenzied tourists with Polaroids a plenty.
As has been usual for my trip, I've been more of an attraction to the locals than their places have been to me, but this place is really great. In addition to hundreds of masterfully crafted bits and boulders of jade are hundreds of red paper lanterns. I've been wanting one of my own for as long as I can remember and the nice ladies there finally gave me one. I promptly requested a second one and they just laughed me off. Oh well.
The most enthralling thing I found in the whole temple though was my plush yellow chicken I brought from home. Aside from the freebie lantern I wasn't allowed to touch anything in there, as if I'd break it or something. My chicken came with no such stipulation. Squeeze, poke, nibble, whatever. Chicken-frog was in it with me for keeps.
I say chicken-frog because my memory serves me that it was a yellow chicken, though the pictures say it's a green frog. I don't know which to believe, so I'm just going to tape the two stories together. There, done, it's a chicken-frog.
As beautiful as it was and as much as I recommend it to everyone, I have to apologize for still being such a disinterested kid at heart. It's not my fault though. According to my doctor all my organs are of the kid variety. With Mom, Dad and Father Time as my witness, it's just who I am.
