Today, I came to Yuan Bao temple to see what activities they perform here. The Yuan Bao Temple itself is relatively small. Just outside the temple, an old tree stands beside the main gate. The gate itself has an intricate design on the top, inside the small courtyard is a wrought iron ghost shaped like a money furnace. The entrance to the temple itself has more traditional multicolored wood carvings.

Behind the temple itself is a multi-storied building that belongs to the temple and is called the Dadao Public Temple. However, there is no aesthetic architectural or artistic quality to the building.

In Yuan Bao temple there’s a ceremony we can call a religious ritual. Many people come here to celebrate and thank their god, during their religious ritual they like to sing, pray and make Tangyuan food but just some people sing in this temple.

  The traditional food they eat when they celebrate, it name is Tangyuan. Tangyuan is a Chinese food made from glutinous rice flour mixed with a small amount of water to form balls, and then it is cooked and served in boiling water. Tangyuan can be either small or large, and filled or unfilled. They are traditionally eaten during Yuanxiao or the Lantern Festival, but also served as a dessert on Chinese wedding day, Winter Solstice Festival, and any occasions such as family re-union, to find a reason to reunite. But, it seems only women make this food because I never saw a man make this.

   I think all the participants at Yuan Bao temple are very enthusiastic for this ceremony or religious ritual. Although it’s winter they can spend their time to celebrate, such as singing and praying. Because of that, they make me feel enthusiastic and curious about that too. So, I always record what they did by camera and I always take a photo too just for documenting the event. And they took a long time to celebrate this and thanks to their gods. I think and they have around 60 gods. And this morning, I helped someone to bring their stuff from somewhere (because I don’t know the name of the place) to their office and I helped to throw the garbage out in the trash too. And it made me feel good to help someone. In this temple I work as a team because I have a team of other students from other countries on exchange with me (from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Canada). So, our role in this project is to work as a team, and make a blog, record videos, and take pictures.