Taoist Culture Center

Just down the road from the panda research center was the Daoist Culture Center .  This is another name for Taoist . Taoism is a philosophy or a way of life which is believed by some in China to have been started by a man named Lao Tsu or Tzu. Up in the mountains above the panda research center I could see a huge golden statue of Lao, these temples at the bottom of the road stretched up the mountain towards this.

I spent quite a few hours here often taking a walk after lunch before my afternoon shift with the pandas. Although right by a busy road it always seemed a very peaceful place.  Music and chanting would be playing all the time through small speakers dotted around.  These are just a few of my photos.

This area will be a tourist attraction and inside some of the temple styled buildings are new shops and a museum where you can discover this history of Taoism.

I watched a man do some beautiful calligraphy on huge long sheets of paper inside one  of the shops. Everything inside the shops was so expensive compared to the calligraphy brushes I had bought at a market in Xian. 

 The photograph of me was taken by a lovely lady who first asked me to take a picture of her and then insisted of taking one of me , she was very particular about getting me to stand in the right place and get my head in the right direction .  As I was the only white face around that afternoon a group of teenagers asked to take my photo and two girls jumped in quick to have their photo with me. Every one was really nice and usually they asked before taking a picture of the alien! 

In my next blog I head up the mountain to visit the statue of Lao Tsu .