I look forward to bringing educational and fun experiences in Asia to my granddaughter Mila, who lives in Oklahoma, USA. She can learn about the world through all my adventures. I got a flat stuffed toy to join me. She is reversible. One side is a little girl and the other is a ladybug. I call her LadyB. I sent the same toy to Mila, which she can name as she sees fit. My Chinese name is Gonggong (公公), which means grandfather in Chinese.

I posted the first 15 on Facebook and got so many complaints from fans who hate it, don’t use it or got banned, so I decided to start posting them on China Rising Radio Sinoland. Catching up with #7 here.

ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB AND GONGGONG

Story #7: Chinese love turtles and tortoises. Here’s why…

Puli Town, Nantou County, Taiwan Province, China.

Dear Granddaughter Mila,

Turtles and tortoises are very important in Chinese culture. Did you know that turtles and tortoises are one of China’s four celestial animals? The other three are the tiger, phoenix and dragon. Wow! That’s impressive company, compared to slow and steady tortoise/turtle. Nonetheless, for the Chinese people, these “walking houses” represent longevity, power and tenacity.

You can see them in imperial palaces and Confucist-Daoist-Buddhist temples, holding up big steles (upright stone slabs or pillars, which have poems, philosophy, royal announcements and moral character-building texts carved in them. They are usually 2-4 meters high and made out of marble, granite, etc.. That’s heavy! Only the mighty tortoise/turtle has the strength, power and tenacity to hold up these steles for thousands of years!

Here are three celestial tortoises doing what they do best: holding up steles. Even more than that, each stele has on top two celestial lions balancing the universe in the front paws. If you look carefully, each tortoise also has an orb in its mouth, signifying maintaining universal harmony. The concept of harmony is huge in Chinese civilization. The first stele says: Golden Bright Buddha. The middle one: Supreme Top Phase and the third one says: All Phenomena on Earth Are Bright. On the left of each phrase is the sculptor’s signature and below it, their name seal. The left one adds on the right a smaller phrase citing the year it was made, either 1903, 1962 or 2022, and praises Buddha with the sound of a beating drum during an auspicious daybreak. By the way, this was taken at Panyu Lotus Mountain Park, which is 1.5 hours up the Pearl River from Shenzhen.

Because they are so important, this is why Chinese like to keep tortoises/turtles as pets. Anyway, who wants to try to keep a tiger, phoenix or dragon in the house? That would be awfully messy and tigers are dangerous! Here is the pet tortoise of our Taiwanese friends. They say this species can get to be “Galapagos” sized, up to 100-200kg, like those holding up steles! They have a friend whose tortoise is 75cm long.

Chinese like to keep pet turtles/tortoises, given their importance in their culture and civilization.

Below in the photo and short clip, LadyB was so happy to meet a new animal friend that she turned into a ladybug! Tortoises eat dark-green, leafy vegetables, so they had a meal together!

 LadyB, meet Mr. Tortoise. Mr. Tortoise, meet LadyB the ladybug in our friends’ local Puli restaurant.

                                          Lunchtime!

Love, Grandfather Gonggong