While I was in china, summer of 1999, I spent one week traveling with
my guide(who has become a very good friend of mine). Lily and I first
stopped in Wuxi and went to see the giant statue of Buddha. On our
way, there were several "cabs" which were actually wooden boxes with
poles on the sides that some tourists might try. That's
how some of the residents made their living, while several elderly women ran
after you while you're in the cab (or if you're walkig), asking tourists to buy incense for the temples
where the giant buddha statue resides. I didn't want to buy anything
at first because I felt bad about buying from just one person. finally i gave in and bought some incense from one elderly
lady. When the other ladies found out, they became angry with us because
we didn't buy from them.
I think the cab puller was the son of one of the angry
incense sellers, so we had to get out of our cab and walk the rest of the way.
Here is a small statue. Your supposed to hold the hand for good luck
Many tourists (mostly chinese citizens) took their picture here.
My guess is that this is especially lucky since
the hand is much bigger!
There were several vendors everywhere, selling things such as ice cream bars,
umbrellas, film, incense (the closer you got to the giant buddha, the
more expensive film became!)
Finally we reached a point that was still far from Buddha, but close
enough for a picture.
After our trip to see the statue of Buddha, we were on our way to Lake Taihu.
It is now 2002 , several years after my trip and I am unable to remember
much about this place.
I remember that I took a little ferry across a Lake which took us to an
island where I believe some monks use to inhabit. There was a lady
who wanted me to take a picture with her daughter because I was a foreigner.
I thought this was odd, but agreed to it.
On the island, there were monkeys everywhere and the tourists kept them
well fed You might be able to see some monkeys in the picture if you
have good eyes!
