Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 69

destination was an ancient Chinese temple. We went there by a ‘rickshaw’. I didn’t know what that was until we got
on one. A rickshaw is a carriage where a person gets paid to pull the passengers in the carriage, instead of horses!
At the temple, I saw a huge grand main temple with lots of statues nearby. Everything looked majestic and
powerful. Each statue was surrounded by people kneeling to it. I thought it looked awkward. I simply couldn’t
imagine myself doing that in front of a statue!? The people kneeling were also giving food to the statue, muttering
and murmuring to it. I found it simply weird. I asked Pa what they were doing and Pa said,
“Those people are worshipping those statues. They believe it brings them good luck and fortune. They offer food
and pray to the statues. We might find it a bit awkward but it is their religion, so we MUST accept it.” Suddenly
Anna spotted a bunch of bananas that people had offered to the statues and ran to get it. Unfortunately, she was
spotted by a man there who looked so thin and serious. “Hey” the man shouted at her in Chinese, and we could
not understand even a word.
Ma shouted at Anna to come back. Pa tried to explain to the man that Anna didn’t mean to take it and that she didn’t
know anything about it. After Anna eventually returned the bananas to the man, my family and I went back to our
house and slept. I thought, ‘Phew! What a day!’ I didn’t mind living in Shanghai but deep down inside me, I wished
to just go back to England. Maybe!