Days before the Chinese Spring Festival of 2020, I traveled to Chengdu city to avoid the annual travel peak. I'd like to thanks WeWork's policy to allow me to work remotely. Daily syncing goes really well on Slack and Wechat as what we always did in HQ. While keeping work on the track, it's also a good opportunity for me to visit some locations of WeWork in Chengdu.
Lobby of Pinnacle One
That morning, the sun just raise to the top-right corn of the glass wall, which gives me a very strong implicit feel that I'm in a scenario of Blade Runner.
Pantry of 40th floor
It's a sunny day for local people, but the air was not clear, not only due to air pollution, but fog. From a famous proverb, dogs at Sichuan bark the sun (蜀犬吠日 in Chinese), you can get it. This proverb is a sarcasm that dogs here do not have much time to see the sun. Chengdu is located at the Sichuan plain and rounded by high mountains, it‘s foggy especially in winter.
Even after years of high speed developing, still lots of spots remaining there as indicators of traditional local culture. I found a peaceful zen view sitting at a corner of the main round when I was out for lunch on the first day. A slim and long tree and a grey wall, the shadow of the tree was waving on the wall when the wind breezed through. I was wondering why there is such a stylized building in this commercial district, it should be a patthana, I found Daci Temple (大慈寺 in Chinese) the day after.
Daci Temple, which was destroyed and rebuilt several times in history, was founded by an Indian monk about 1600 years ago. But event today, it still has a strong vitality rooted in the local community. I saw many people pray for blessings at the temple and found some modernized gallery photos on a wall, all these are signs.
The zen of East Asia temples are built internally, you don't have to look for it, it's always there.
But, skyscrapers are rising, I can see the conflicts between a modern world and a traditional society. Hopes are still there.