Tianhou Palace (南沙天后宫) and Jasmine

My friend Tim was invited to go with his school’s principal and her family to see a temple in the far south part of town on Tomb Sweeping Day. He invited me to come along, and we got up early on our vacation day to meet the family. Jasmine, spoke great English and served as our tour guide. Her parents did not speak English, but with body language and a little translation, we could communicate just fine. The temple is filled with superstitious tradition that will supposedly bring good luck, and Jasmine didn’t hesitate to shell out a bit of cash to ensure that she would indeed have good luck. Tim and I did. The place was gorgeous and was right on the sea.

Photos:

This is our first glimpse of the temple as we walk along the sea to the front gate. You can see the whole hillside from just outside the front gate. Tim, Jasmine, and Me. I know what you’re thinking, but she’s only sixteen. This is just one of many places where they burn a lot of incense in the palace. You write your wish on a piece of cardboard and throw it into the tree. When it comes true you have to say thank you. Or Else.

She says the tree can understand my wish in english, but I’m not so sure. If it doesn’t come true, that must be why. This was the lowest house of the palace. No pictures inside, but I took some hip shots. Unfortunately they were pretty blurry This is what most of the incense trays looked like. They burned a ton of it. This is the pagoda at the very top. The same one that you could see from the front gate.

Banging this Drum is also good luck. I sure have a lot of luck coming my way. If you release a turtle into the wild (eg. this concrete pond) you will have good luck. Or throw a coin into the statue’s mouth The last time I saw Annika’s lucky quarter before I hurled it directly into the statue’s mouth… and watched it bounce out. Walking back past the beach there were several barbecues. Note the food: Chicken wings and breasts, Hot dogs, Corn on the Cob:) The three of us with Jasmine’s mother. This girl wanted to have her picture taken with me. I don’t know her. Not the first time, probably not the last.