By the time we checked into the hotel in Wuxi on 23 September 2014, it was already late evening and drizzling. Undeterred by the drizzle, with our umbrellas opened, we strolled the Pedestrian Walk which is just a stone throw from the hotel. The rows of shops on either side of the Walk were once residential houses. They are now converted to pubs, restaurants, fast food outlets, desserts outlets and souvenir shops catering almost solely to the great number of tourists coming to Wuxi. Adjacent to one side of the row of shops is the canal, a reminder that this was once a water village of which Wuxi is famous for.
Wuxi is a name easy to remember. Wuxi in Chinese "無锡" literally means "No Tin".
We entered an outlet that served only Taiwanese desserts. We chatted with the young man who served the customers and he turned out to be an undergraduate student studying in Jiangnan University.
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China became the world's largest trading nation overtaking USA in 2013. Four years earlier in 2009, China became the world's largest exporter of goods. It was reported in July 2014 that the top one percent of households in China control more than one third of the country's wealth while the bottom 25 percent control just one hundredth. Today, Communist China today is but in name only.
With wealth, the pursuit in life goes beyond the material things. Buddhism in China has been enjoying an unprecedented revival.
The Lingsan Buddhist temple built at the foot of Lingsan which was opened to the public in January 2009 is indeed a grand structure. It played host to the second World Buddhist Forum in 2009. It drew 1,700 participants from 50 countries spread over 5 continents.
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Lingsan Grand Buddha
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Nine dragons bathing Sakyamuni
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