When I was young, I learned a poem in Chinese school. It was about a scholar who saw the moonlight fall at the foot of his bed. In that moment when he looked at the moon, he would lower his head and also think of his home. That poem was by Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty. Up to this very day, it's the only Chinese poem I can actually recite. Mind you, I can only do it in Cantonese and not Mandarin.

Today, I had a wonderful opportunity to go to the Li Bai Pavillion in the nearby city of Ma'anshan, just east along the river from Wuhu, and attend the Ma'anshan International Poem-Chanting Festival, China. I'll get to why it's called a chanting festival later, but first, let me tell you the events of the day.

The other foreign teachers had talked about attending this event in past years and how they had to go on stage and read poetry too. This year, we did not find out about when the festival was until pretty late. All the same, we were allowed to go. All the other teachers were here last year, so they had been to the festival before. I, on the other hand, was quite eager to go and see what this festival was all about. Plus, I had a slightly vested interest in seeing something related to the famous Li Bai. The rest of the people who were going were the foreign students who are at the university studying Chinese.

The bus left our campus at 7am. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The sky was only partly cloudy and the morning sun looked beautiful. It was a little cold out, but it was managable. We took a one hour trip to Ma'anshan. I noticed that the countryside near the highway did not look like countryside. Maybe it was because the two municipalities are really close to each other and there is overlapping of urbanization. I expected to see more farmland than buildings, though. I talked to the Danish couple who are studying here. The woman is actually ethnically Asian, but she was raised in Denmark from what I understand. There a great couple and they made for good conversation.

We soon arrived at the Li Bai Pavillion. As we got off the bus and walked in, I noticed that the place was really decorated and busy. There were children lined up to greet all the guests. They were in primary school uniforms and they all, yes all, had make up on. They were really cute. It was the Chinese version of a red carpet as one person said.

The festival got under way very quickly. There were performers/chanters of many sorts. The most notable presence there was the group of Japanese from the poetry chanting institute in Japan. They recited the Li Bai poems in their Japanese equivalent. I think most of you know that the Japanese use a lot of Chinese characters in their language so that things can be mutually intelligible in the written language. These Japanese men and women, most of them being seniors, could really chant. There was one elderly Japanese man who I would swear was turning beet red as he chanted. They also gave many gifts to the pavillion. Apparently, the Japanese are big benefactors of the Li Bai memorial.

Of course, there were plenty of Chinese on hand. Some children and teenagers did these dances. I'm not sure if they were traditional in the strictest sense of the word, but they were entertaining. The dresses were very beautiful and very colourful. Also, there was a musical Chinese ensemble. They played wonderful Chinese folk music. It sounded very soothing.

Then, there were the foreign students. As a part of their studies, they needed to learn some poems and the festival was a good way to showcase their talent. They did a pretty good job, I must admit.

Another thing that happened on stage is that there was sometimes a Chinese or Japanese calligrapher on the stage and write out the poem as someone chanted or recited it. I thought that was kind of different. I guess that's what they did before karaoke was invented. :P

The festival was over very quickly. The morning had not even passed yet and we were getting up out of our seats.

There's a park surrounding the pavillion and we got to look around there. There's a rock that is said to be where Li Bai met his fateful end. If I remember correctly, he was drunk, like always, and was leaning over a little too much. Then, plop. Into the Chang Jiang he went. They never found his body. (You China experts should correct me if I'm wrong)

After the pavillion and park, we made our way into town for lunch. Most of us did not have breakfast. I had some, but I still needed to munch on some biscuits during the performances. Before we actually got to the restaurant, we stopped by Ma'anshan's largest park, Nanhu (South Lake) Park. It was beautiful. There was a lovely fountain and also a stirring statue of three strong stallions. It was a very forceful and powerful statue.

Lunch was great, just like all the other big meals I've had here. The restaurant's English name was the VIP Palaza. You know, palace + plaza = palaza. Makes sense, right? For the first time ever, I had snake. It taste really good, but it's really similar to fish in that there are a lot of little bones.

It was a great one-day trip. Ma'anshan is quite a beautiful, little city. It's surprisingly modern and clean. The streets and shops were bustling and the weather was nice. If any of you are in the area, I've got the travel agent's card. I'm sure she'll like your business. She also speaks a little Cantonese. That was really helpful for me.

The only downer about the trip was that I didn't find any postcards. You can't win'em all.