At Nanputuo

As Malinda already mentioned in a previous post, yesterday we went to feed the fish in the gardens of Nanputuo Buddhist Temple (fish food is dry, crumbled up ramen noodles).

But more interesting than the fish were the birds. One in particular landed on a lily pad in the water fairly close to where we were – I’m pretty sure he was a fish-eater drawn by the schools of fish scrambling for our fish food. (In fact, Maya decided to leave because she didn’t want to see it eat a fish – though it never did). Any ornithologists out there who can identify the bird?

In spite of the warm temperatures, we were enjoying the peaceful gardens of Nanputuo….

. . . when a great big boom shattered the peace of the temple grounds and startled many, many birds into flight.

Almost every day we hear explosions rattling the air. I thought it was because several tunnels are being built around here, and some of the explosions are probably just that. But a lady told me that what we hear is also the implosion of many buildings being torn down to make room to build newer and better ones.

I have been surprised to see so much new construction around here. Everywhere you look you see new buildings going up, streets or sidewalks being widened or repaired. What a busy city! It is a good thing you can get away from all this noise and enter (usually!) peaceful gardens.