Shandong museum

Today I walked to Shandong museum, which took about half an hour. The road there was heavily polluted today and my nose started itching like I used to feel in India, in the old markets of Delhi.

I imagined that the museum would be small and not very well-kept, with not much to see. I was so wrong.

I don't consider myself a museum-person. I don't like the leg pain you get from museums, and I find it difficult visualising what ancient peoples used their tools for. But the museum building itself was worth the entire trip.

Never have I seen such a large entrance hall, with marble stairs. It was absolutely breath-taking.

Inside I looked around the Confucius art section, pre-historic section and modern art section. I formulated a list of things that I should do on my next museum trip to ensure maximum enjoyability:

•  Walk slowly and don't stop moving your legs. Leg and foot pain come from constant walking and stopping, walking and stopping.
• Look only at objects that grab your attention (i.e. don't look at everything). Then try to imagine how these things were used and what it says about the people that used them. Remember these people led to your being on this Earth. They are your ancestors. (Make it personal)
• Learn only a few key facts (about five).

What key facts did I take away?

• According to the huge board at the entrance of the Confucius art section, 'Confucius' ethics and political theory forced the gentle and humane nature on the Chinese'.  

I find this interesting because I have always wanted to know why Chinese people are, in general, so much gentler and more peaceful than other peoples, like the Arabs today or the Mongols of yesteryear. I find it difficult to believe that Confucius' ethics are responsible, and anyway I don't like the use of the word 'force' in the explanation. How can you 'force' gentleness? Maybe it's just a translation error.

• In 221 BC Emperor Qin became the first person to unite China.
• Shandong was known as a land of immortals (possible some connection to Mount Tai), philosophical thinkers (Confucius was born in Shandong) and a vibrant economy (good natural resources).
• The design of the museum is based on traditional Chinese culture of having a 'round sky and square Earth'.
• In some dynasty or another they word lampshades on their heads!

On my way home I got on the bus and was perplexed to find yet again a woman standing besides an empty seat. My culturally-shaped brain could not come up with a logical reason why someone would leave a perfectly good seat and stand up. Here are the reasons I thought of:

• She likes exercise
• She's afraid someone gross was sitting on the chair before her and has therefore contaminated it (I did see someone blow into his fingers then wipe his discharge onto the chair next to him)

And that's it, I've come up with a poxy 2 possibilities. It baffles my mind but this is a perfect opportunity for me to see it as a difference in culture and that neither she nor I are right or wrong, we are just different. 

On this same eventful bus trip, I heard loud banging and exploding noises. Someone had set off five boxes of firecrackers. They are so loud that it sounds as if a neighbouring country is shelling our city. And yet again, I failed to understand why they would set off firecrackers in broad daylight, surely they would be more of a spectacle across the black night sky?

In other news, I am fasting today, drinking only hot water all day. Yesterday my Chinese language exchange partner and I ate a 'takeaway' rice, beef, mushroom and pak choi meal. The mushrooms were so salty that for the rest of the day I felt like my body was shutting down. I decided therefore that I need to cleanse my body of all of the rubbish that I have put inside it over the last few months, and give my digestive system a rest. Added to that this morning I tried to do some exercise and I got a nasty mouthful of acid-reflux, so my body obviously needs a little TLC.

Fasting is not new to me, I used to do it during Ramadan. Also when I was reading a lot of spiritual literature, especially Gandhi's autobiography, I was inspired to fast for spiritual reasons - going without food for one day is a good way to lessen your ego and release you a little more from worldy attachments. But my purposes today are purely health-based.

Also, I am officially addicted to The Office (US). It makes me so happy when I watch it, and I basically live my days just so that I can get to the end of them and join my friends in their office, before I go to sleep. I am often thinking about their lives and what they would do or say in certain situations (yes I am aware that they are fictious characters) and I feel like I have been allowed into a wonderful little community. You should check it out if you can!