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OCD: Savoring A Moment

By Ophelia Chong
October 30, 2009
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All this week, Ophelia Chong will be touring China, all the while recording her observations, thoughts, and insights right here for you. To view more of her online diary entries, click here.

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After I climb the chill mountain's steep stone paths,
Deep in the white clouds there are homes of men.
I stop my carriage, and sit to admire the maple-grove at nightfall,
Whose frozen leaves are redder than the flowers of early Spring.Du Mu (803--852 AD)

Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618 - June 4, 907)
China in its quiet moments is a beauty to behold. If you stand still at a busy intersection and just watch the world fly by, you can catch a single moment that will astound you - a bird will land at your feet and peck at a fallen crumb from a bun cradled in a child's hand or the scent of fresh soap on the woman that just passed on your right.

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I was at the Great Wall, at Mutianyu, it as quiet, no tour buses, no bustling stalls full of plastic miniature replicas of the Great Wall, no wandering flocks of snapping cameras and fanny packs, it was a silent day.

As I climbed a local path to the Wall, I took in the colors of Fall, the leaves dancing across the path, carried by a breeze the leaves swirled and fell like words from a poet's brush. I could smell the smoke from a charcoal stove, I imagined the kettle on the stove heating up water for tea, ready to warm a farmer's hands after a day of cutting wood for the winter. Piles of branches laid neatly along the path, ready to be used in the next few months to warm the houses. This is a silent still China, one that you find everywhere, if you opened your heart.

Images: Ophelia Chong / Mutianyu 10.28.09

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