The shrine is at the sight of a banyan tree, which brings good feng shui. Bill explained that these shrines are all over China, in neighborhoods and small towns (Bill, if there is anything I'm messing up, don't hesitate to let me know -- no #FakeNews here!).
When people move, they leave these behind in the neighborhood shrine. I'm not sure if that's because you are supposed to get new ones when you move, or that these guys (not sure of the word for it) can't leave the local area. Either way, it makes for an unusual sight to stumble upon (well, we didn't stumble upon it -- Bill brought us by on purpose.
The old lady and the shrine.
Red faces means they have something to do
with war. And by war I don't mean advanced
baseball statistics!
Neat design for a random door.
Beautiful public swimming pool.
The iconic Flame of the Forest flowers.
The Hong Kong orchid tree. Somehow I
am reminded of Stephen Strasburg.
After the shrine, we walked through more of the neighborhood, including past a mahjong room -- a little hall in the wall nook. Alas, no one was playing right then. We saw men with birdcages eating in restaurants (that might have before the shrine). Bill is quite taken with them -- they take their birds in cages to the park, hang them up, shoot the breeze about birds, play cards, then take their birds to restaurants, and the birds hang out in the cages whilst the men eat.
Ladies, it is a guy thing -- you wouldn't understand. Heck, I don't understand, but it is cool to see.
We also passed by a huge public pool with slides and built-in water guns, and other family fun (there is also a lap pool. Beautiful facility. It was empty for a Saturday, but I'm guessing that's because the air temperature was low 70s even with the high humidity.
All in all, a very cool tour so far.
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