Thursday, September 18, 2014

Faces of Longhua

After my Chinese lesson today (it was a most excellent suggestion that I find someone who speaks no English) I went down to 龙华 Longhua. It's home not only to an ancient temple with a famous 10th century pagoda and many halls full of Buddhas (though not the promised temple vegetarian noodle shop), but also, I discovered, to the Shanghai Martyrs' Cemetery and Museum, a key site of patriotic "red tourism." Where the temple wowed me with a Guanyin so versatile she's not just got a thousand arms but does it four times, the Cemetery and Museum impressed me with its historical earnest and its heroic art.