By: Atty. Marlo T. Cristobal
The very famous tourist hub of Taihu Lake in Wuxi is a big freshwater lake that is perfectly paired with wide verdant banks enough to render a nature lover crazy appreciating its overall scenic spectacular. As you breathe in the lake light cool breeze while laying eyes on on its expansive verdant banks, you cannot help getting romantic. My wife and l did fall into the lake’s romantic trap. We separated from our companions to savor more the emotion and scenic view of the place, leaving us further drifting away from our group, holding hands like young, implacable lovers that could provoke the envy or contempt of real young lovers. We rambled through the vast verdant grounds of the lake until we got to an ice cream parlor and savored some scoops like carefree teenagers arresting with skillful tongues the ice cream drips spilling over our edible cups under a tent set up in the wide green course near the lake. We got carried away by the romantic appeal of the place we did not notice we had meandered long beyond our alloted time. We had to run back to our ride where our waiting companions were beckoning and calling us loud, perhaps cursing us in silence, as our ride departure was already delayed.
We proceeded next to a very long but narrow commercial street (tiangge we call in the Philippines) in Sozhou city where tourists could stuff themselves with for souvenirs or for taking home on a wide variety of goods. Nothing peculiar about this place, it is a typical sight in many countries, particularly in Asia, except the exotic and odd-looking food (but tasty mind you) you ĺikewise find similar eatables elsewhere in Asian countries with exactly the same descriptions.
Here in Shanghai, I was made to have a closer view of an incredible and mysterious working of nature that further strengthens my faith in the existence of God, for which l am compelled to do some extended discourse if only to drive home its precious spiritual dimension.
We were led to a place where the silk cloth, with all its legendary luxury and beauty, was displayed in its own glory and grandeur of many colors and shades and multifarious uses as clothing and China’s universal decorations. Its costly worth, we were told, confined its use for China’s emperor’s wear and imperial palaces decorations at one time. And likewise at one time silk production became a cornerstone of China’s economy, culture, and trade.
And here lies the mystery behind this glory and grandeur that was silk. The silk came from the very lowly moths that lay eggs, from which tiny worms, the silkworms, hatch. These silkworms are fed exclusively with mulberry leaves for about a month, after which they spin cocoons. The cocoons are heated to kill the pupa inside and then rinsed in hot water to loosen the silk threads and unravel the single, continuous filament from each cocoon. Multiple filaments are twisted together to create a sturdier yarn, which thereafter would be made to undergo further process to suit its intended use. Can you not imagine a divine intelligence that sent that tiny worm to a giant country of humanity to trigger one strong foundation of its economy and people?
I confidently speak with divine conviction . The Bible speaks clearly that God’s existence and power are proved by the things that are made in the universe (Please digest well Romans 1:20, NCV). The heavens display a mind-boggling creations of more than billions of galaxies with each galaxy containing more than billions of stars. The endless vastness of our heavenly bodies and the space we, humans, live is utterly beyond the full comprehension of humans’s little mind. In this vast mind-bending space, God put order in and for everything (Please read Genesis 1:1-31, 1Corinthians 14:33). Scientists relatively recently discovered all these creations and their indispensable order when they found out in their calculus that any heavenly body displaced from its designated location will trigger upheaval in the solar system. But humanity can stay cool, there is a guiding intelligence we call God to maintain that order in the heavens — an order that God already installed from eternity yet, but a secret that the small minds of scientists only discovered in recent times.
So obvious that God exists, yet so many still remain unbelievers. That’s why God call these people, “fool.” (Psalms 14:1). Please no offense meant to friends who don’t subscribe to the faith. Take it just an indispensable part of my write up.
After our Silk rendezvous in the morning of September 19, we took a walk in the neighboring premises of the attractive ship styled and gleaming surface department store of Louis Vuitton and Shanghai’s Starbucks Reserve and Roastery, which our tour guide described as the biggest in the world. I had to sidle up to our guide to whisper to him, after my inspection of the inside premises of the well-known coffee shop, that Japan’s Starbucks Reserve and Roastery was a whole lot bigger. He kept quiet. I suspected he has not seen the one in Japan.
Shanghai’s world famous Bund and terrific tourist attraction gives you a panoramic view from the middle of a river bounded on its banks by a blend of awe-inspiring and nostalgia-evoking designs of modern and old buildings. We took at nighttime a big, two tiered boat that strolled us around the river amidst the carnival of bedazzling bright multi-colored lights on buildings àla Las Vegas, to our full delight, our fluvial promenade having lasted for more than one hour.
On the last day of our tour, September 27, we raced to Shanghai-yuyuan market (bazaar market) for our last shopping binge. This place is no different from our own dirty, bargain-priced market Divisoria, except that it is impeccably clean and peopled more with Caucasians shoppers. In fairness though, friends tell me that Divisoria has just been transformed very clean, thanks to the new mayor of Manila.
