You see these in front of many buildings. They're statues of a Chinese Foo Dog. Foo Dogs are the ancient sacred dogs of Asia who guard Buddhist temples. I've seen similar dog/lion critter statues in Japan.
What's NEAT is that they are carved out of a bock of stone, and the ball in the dog's mouth is a freely moving part of the carved stone. You can put your hand in the dog's mouth, and move the stone ball around, but the mouth opening is too small to remove the ball.

Family visiting the temple.

Bonsai? Almost! In China, they're called Penjing.

Another Penjing.

Corridor

Stone carvings were everywhere.

More carvings!

A wide open courtyard.

A slight "meltdown."
Some of us were more impressed with the stone carvings, courtyards, and Penjing (Bonsai) trees than others. Remember, though, her referral documents said that our Spicy Hunan Girl had a "mild temperament."
HAH!

Details of clay figurines molded/carved onto roofline. The large thing sticking up on the top right is a carp. These are used on buildings for the same reason in China as in Japan - to protect the building from fire. They hope.

Old & New - ancient temple in foreground, modern buildings in background.

Not so cranky now! Meltdown, what meltdown?

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Jeff Johnson
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