Rubbing the Cat - a Xi'an recollection
I am standing in a small windowless room rubbing a stone cat - lion actually - and it has something to do with Feng Shui and, no, this is not a dream; it is actually happening, and I am not alone, there are others. They are lining up to rub the stone lion.
“First, behind the ears,” the woman instructs, “ then the chest...now the front paws...now the sides...now the big butt.”
And it all means something important, especially the rubbing of the big butt, but I can’t remember what now. I dutifully rub as commanded. Amazing what one will do in a group on tour in a faraway land if the guide is convincing enough.
We have escaped from the punishing mid-day heat on the walls of the old city of Xi’an and moved into an exhibit room that our guide claims is only open 72 days of the year and how lucky we are to be here on this day. Lucky most are those who discover the AC unit in the corner pumping out wonderfully chilled air.
This infrequently open exhibit with the lucky rubbing lion shows pictures of buildings whose feng shui is good and some not. I have no pictures to prove this because the taking of photos is forbidden. Not sure why, but there it is.
According to Wikipedia, Feng Shui was the reason the Chinese invented the compass. “It has foundation texts, core theories and methods, and an impressive past based on archæological discoveries and the work of archæoastronomers.”
But the exhibit room is connected to a small store which, I suspect, is actually open more than 72 days a year, but I can’t confirm that. Buy any of a number of different sized and colored jade lions, each to bring a different good thing to its owner.
This is just one of the three or four times on our trip that we are taken to what appears to be a legitimate factory or exhibit that is - surprise! - fortuitously connected to a retail establishment selling products related to the exhibit. Buy a full sized terra cotta warrior at the factory that makes them (see photo under July 1 entry "Ghengis Can"). Or buy a silk comforter at the silk factory (OK - I did!)
The more cynical in our group assume that the "factory workers" are all part of a front, extensions of the retail operation. Perhaps. But everyone rubbed lion butt. Just in case....