There's a temple in the middle of Lin'an. I'm not sure what kind of temple, and I'm pretty sure none of the inhabitants of Lin'an know either, but it's the closest thing to a tourist attraction in Lin'an.
I've passed by it dozens of times before but today was the first time I've ever seen street entertainment out front. A bunch of people were huddled around something so I stopped to see what was going on. A muzzled monkey was fighting a small dog while another monkey (and a Lin'an crowd) watched. It was staged (i think) because the trainer stopped the fight (the monkey and the dog seemed okay) with a word. The monkey then turned, picked up a large stick and came after the trainer. The trainer gave a hand motion, the monkey dropped the stick, went to a bag, and pulled out two knives, one in each hand. He then came at the trainer again. The trainer picked up a whip and had a little confrontation. All this time the other monkey and dog and crowd are just watching and laughing.
I would have loved to had stayed and seen the final outcome, but unfortunately, I had somewhere to be. I'll always wonder though. Sadly, I don't think that was the strangest thing that happened to me today.
I had a bit of a Chinese day. I didn't mean to. When I woke up it was all normal, but by the end of tonight I was watching a multicolored fountain spurt water into a crowd of giggling Chinese and sampling various exotic teas while making plans to climb some mountain on Sunday with the Shanghai bus driver's wife and daughter. I'll let you know how it goes...
*The title for this blog comes from a Minus the Bear song. You can download it for free from their website: http://www.minusthebear.com and you should, because it's good.
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