Qing Long Si temple today

On Saturday, during our make-up class for the holiday, one of my students said I should go to the Qing Long Si Temple because the ornamental cherry trees would be in bloom and the place is very beautiful.  She also said I could take the 400 bus to get there.  I have been telling my students that when they become teachers, they need to make sure their students get out and do things and have to communicate with Chinese people.  I decided to visit the Qing Long Si as a way to tell the students why it is important to do what I have been talking about.  I had my basic information written down on paper, a 1 yuan dollar in my pocket, some basic instructs, and the feeling of adventure in my heart.  I headed off to find the 400 bus and the Qing Long Si temple. I was told it would take about 40 minutes to get there and that was all I knew.  After about 30 minutes I started to ask some younger people, on the bus, where this place was.  I got some more information from them.  Some older people, older like my age, also told me that I had 4 more stops and then I get off the bus.  I was able to tell him in Mandarin, that my students told me the place was very beautiful.  He was able to understand.  As we got closer to the stop some students told me to follow them because they were going to the temple.  I followed them and they told me they were Xian International University students and I showed them my Faculty ID.  I always carry my faculty ID because that way I can leave my passport at the hotel and I get the student discount and only pay half price.  I am also old enough that students will insist that I sit down on the bus when they give me their seat.  Today I got up and gave my seat to a lady with a baby.   Once I got  my ticket and got in the temple, what I saw was people taking pictures, relaxing, and just enjoying the day.  There was a lot of families and many students there.  Lots of people getting their pictures taken with the flowers.

The people were coming in like this all day.  The place in not that big but I imagine when you live in apartments it is nice to go to some place green and a nice spring day.  This is not a tourist place that a bus would take you to but it was nice to see what people do that live here. It made me think of the ICC field trip to the Southwest when we were at Zion.  At the one lodge they had ice cream and big oak tree with green grass.  The place was packed full of people eating ice cream and sitting on the grass under the shade of the oak tree.  Why, because it was a nice place to be.  Not as exciting as climbing to Angels Landing but a very nice place to be.  I had a nice day.  Spent some time with some students that have seen me walking around the campus.  I ate some type of snack food that tasted like candied smoke.  I did not ask them to tell me what it was but I had heard one girl say it was dragon snack.  Now I have to ask my class to try and explain what this is to me, because I am going to bring some home.  It was not that good, and it was not that bad, it was a favor that I had never tasted before.  I also ate a Bing Tang Hu Lu, a candied fruit on a stick and bought some Jing Gao, a sticky rice dessert.  The reason I did that was because students had talked about it in class.

Bing Tang Hu Lu, a candied fruit, and very good.