Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya
 
Plastic chairs and tables!
 
If you find yourself walking around your home city and your favourite café no longer has tables and chairs for you to relax on the sidewalk with your coffee I have found out where they have gone.
 
Zhongwei city here in Ningxia Province China.
The city is like a sea of plastic tables and chairs.
 
Each eatery has no less than five million of them and don't think that any of them will be left empty as they won't be. It seems that the populations of all surrounding cities flock to Zhongwei city for an evening of beer and bbq and then bugger off home again once a small lake of empty bottles lay scattered around each table.
 
It seems that if there is an empty space then come evening it will be filled with plastic!
 
Whilst watching TV with Luo Wei this evening I also found out that ALL small hotels have been instructed NOT to accept foreigners no matter what city they are in. This will continue until the completion of the Olympics. Yesterday it made me angry that we were turned away from all hotels but after Luo Wei translated the governments official Olympic policy I guess it made me feel much safer than I already to living here in China.
 
Behind the scenes all larger hotels must provide more security due to recent events that have happened around the country leading up to the 2008 games. For example; the deaths of the sixteen policemen in Kashgar city in Xinjiang Province. Several men tried to board the train to Beijing loaded with all types of explosives and all men were without any form of identification.
 
For those who read my blog that is the city I was hoping to visit sometime this summer!
 
Add to that the threats of the 'Bad Men' of capturing Foreigners and taking them to Beijing to 'do bad things to them' to add to their 'shouting'.
 
Due to tightened security measures it is doubtful I would even get a ticket there now. I now know that even if there was one available for me I would be told the train was full. For most this would feel restrictive and frustrating but I guess after living here for so long sometimes it is for such things as protection for us foreigners. No matter what short term visitors say along with those who have never visited China before, we foreigners are, very well looked after here.
 
Hence, touch us in any violent or thieving way and it is the death penalty for a Chinese!
 
So to today's pictures, The Gao Temple or The High Temple as it is also known. Here in Zhongwei City there really isn't much for the city to boast about except for watermelons, plastic tables and chairs and the one main temple in town, the High Temple. It still boasts that it caters for the needs of Buddhism Confucianism and Taoism.
Really?
Does it still even today?
                                                                                                               
I must say though that it is one of the more beautiful temples that I have visited this summer. It really is a huge mixture of different styles of architecture and the gardens are relaxing and very beautiful. The temple costs twenty Yuan to enter but you can roam freely around the gardens for as long as you desire.
 
The highlight of the visit, besides the temple itself was the haunted house below the temple.

The LP says that it was a bomb shelter that was built during the Cultural Revolution but now it is filled with freaky scenes of people being tortured by demons. Motion sensors fill the dark tunnels with screams as you walk towards the next barely lit room of torture that shows you mortals being strung up by their backbones or being sawn in half.
 
Poor little Luo Wei was clutching tightly to me during the entire adventure.
 
When we returned to the hotel we asked how much it was for a day trip to our next destination, the Sikou Scenic Area. They wanted three hundred Yuan per person which pretty much covers the bus journey to and from. We negotiated with a taxi driver and got him down to one hundred and fifty for both of us. The LP puts it at two to three hundred for the day for a taxi.
 
I must say Luo Wei was at him for about fifteen minutes!
So I think he gave in to one hundred and fifty just so he could get some sleep!
 
Tomorrow will hopefully be filled with many hours of caves and walking through and above the dramatic gorge. There is supposed to be an awesome suspension bridge that offers some fantastic views.
 
Beers N Noodles toya.....shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Bon Jovi
The album was 'New Jersey'
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Gao (High) Temple
 
High Temple (Gao Miao): Located north of the old Zhongwei City, the High Temple was a complex of temple architecture first built in the Ming Dynasty. It was renovated during the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). On a 4,100 square meters terrace, more than 260 rooms are constructed, praised to be the outstanding representative of Ningxia's ancient architecture.
 
The Gao Temple, located in Zhongwei, caters to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Inside the temple can be seen statues of the Holy Mother, Jade Emperor and Gautama Buddha, among others. There are 250 temple rooms and mostly made of wood. The caverns in the complex were used as a bomb shelter during the period of the Cultural Revolution and now depict pictures of a kind of Chinese religious hell.
 
The Gao Temple ( Gao miao ) is located within the town of Zhongwei , 170km southwest of Yinchuan. The temple was originally built in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), was flattened by an earthquake in 1739 AD, was rebuilt and enlarged after this and then razed to the ground by fire in 1942. The present temple is a magnificent jumble of buildings and styles covering an area of about four thousand square meters.
 
The Gao Temple is a structure that, like the Hanging Monastery near Datong, caters mainly to the three religions of Buddhism , Confucianism and Taoism (although the temple even goes so far as to celebrate Christianity and other religions that have tried to find their home in China). Statues of the Gautama Buddha , the Jade Emperor and the Holy Mother can still be seen here, under the roofs of the 250 temple rooms that make up the complex.
 
The present day Gao Temple is still mainly wooden in structure, and is beautifully interweaved, with tier upon tier, veranda under eave, presenting a most impressive aspect. The temple also has a gruesome face, however, in the caverns below the temple. These caverns, originally converted by the communists as a bomb shelter during the uncertainty of the Cultural Revolution Years (1966-76), have now be turned into a peculiar kind of Chinese religious hell, where devils are depicted torturing those souls who strayed from a righteous path. This basement is definitely worth the entrance fee.