All Saints’ Day at the Oriental Pearl Tower

I have been staying in China for more than two years but until now, I have never found a single stick of candle being sold in small, medium or huge groceries, department stores, convenience stores or even in the bangketa (unless I go to the temples to buy red candles which I doubt the temple attendants would allow me to take out). The only candle I have seen was those tiny little candle sticks that my Chinese housemate bought from somewhere I don’t know. That’s why we couldn’t light a single candle for the souls of the departed, but we had incense sticks.

November 1, 2008 – All Saints Day, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. This is our third time to visit the area but this is the first time that we actually went inside. We only picked the cheapest ticket (35RMB/person) which will allow us to visit the wax museum of Chinese History on the ground level. The exhibits show the history of China and in some twisted way, this is our way to commemorate the souls of those departed. Or to make it more proper, our pre-All Souls Day celebration. It would be improper to commemorate All Saints Day because the majority of the Chinese population are non-Catholics.

We had enough photos taken at this high tower but due to it’s height, we never had captured it’s entire tallness. I realized just recently that the only way to photograph its entire height is to either lie down at car lanes holding your camera (which endangers your pathetic lives, of course) or buy an entrance ticket, stand on this platform (see photo below) and pay a photographer (wish they speak English or at least know how to play charade) 20RMB to have you photograph with the whole tower on the background.

Here’s a few photos I’ve taken inside the wax museum, more to come later…

Here is the setting of the Chinese adaptation of Edgardo M. Reyes‘ infamous short story, Gilingang Bato. The original Filipino version of gilingang bato have smaller handle so the user can use it while sitting down.

This is how the Tindahan ni Aling Nena looks like when she is not around and being taken cared of only by her Chinese husband whose name was not mentioned in the Eraserheads song.

And here is the Chinese adaptation of Harry Potter - Harry Potter and the Chinese Knock-offs.