Bicycles, robots and torture instruments.
The sites of the two pagodas are at a significant distance. It is a hot day and I don’t want to walk several kilometres on foot to reach it so I decide to take the metro. Next to station there are hundreds of parked bicycles. 
Actually, more than parked it should be better say chaotically stacked. 
In China’s bigger town it is becoming very popular the service of bike-sharing and, differently from Milan and other European towns, the bicycles can be left in any place because there are not pre-defined racks. Of course, this means that, close to metro station, the situation is pretty crazy as you can see in the small picture in this page.
Talking about craziness, I don’t know if it belongs to the category but for sure the strange tool, almost a torture instrument, that a small but powerful lady employee of the Metro company is using in the metro to push people in the crowded cars, looks weird. 
It’s only me or she has a kind of sadistic smile painted on her face? Before reaching the site of the giant wild goose pagoda I stop by the a temporary exhibition called “Saluzi Robot Experience”. I know that China is more and more technologically advanced and therefore my expectations are very high but in the end I don’t see anything that really impresses me. For sure children like this place and they love playing with robots. Well, to be honest, one thing that draw my attention exists and it is just at the exit of the exhibition: a huge specimen of a Transformer, I think at least 5 meters tall. So, if I wanted to see an impressive robot, my curiosity was satisfied. And now: the giant wild goose pagoda.
The giant wild goose pagoda.
As you may imagine, the giant wild goose pagoda is bigger than the small goose pagoda, the one I’m going to visit is 60 mt. tall. 
This is not the only difference. 
The other site I’ve visited in the morning was quiet, green and secluded instead this is big, located in the middle of a big modern square with fountains, columns and statues of Chinese characters.
Both pagodas were built under the Tang dynasty, in the seventh century but this one is the oldest one. Also the giant goose pagoda was damaged during the earthquake of 1556. 
Within the site, the atmosphere is more traditional. There are statues of buddha and the usual altar. Here I also saw a sign explaining (for those ones able to read Chinese language) how to use the incense stick. I can only understand that the stick should be put on the front and held with both hands as I’ve seen done in other temples. I keep walking around the temple area doing as much photos I can also because I know that this is the last site I’m visiting in this fantastic town. Tomorrow morning I have to catch a train to Shanghai. The Chinese leg of my trip around the world goes on.
Below you can find some picture taken at the pagodas.
