(Ecns.cn)--Besides the drone of voices chanting Taoist scriptures, you can normally hear only your own echo in a Taoist temple, but one temple in Gaolan county in China's northwest Gansu Province, is alive with the murmurings of a little baby.
One year ago, as he was striking the bell that awakes the community at four o'clock in the morning, a Taoist priest happened to find the infant boy in a cardboard box just outside the temple door. He soon informed the senior priest of the foundling and took him inside the temple.
The priest then invited a nurse to the temple who conducted a basic examination of the baby's health. "The baby might have been just two or three days old, and his umbilical cord was still attached when he was left at the temple," explained the senior Taoist priest surnamed Wei.
After only a brief hesitation, Wei decided to adopt the baby, but realized that taking care of him would not be easy for a votary. Almost all his time was devoted to the baby in the first month, while he learned to feed him ewe's milk and change the child's diapers.
The news that a baby was living in the temple soon spread throughout the county, and many of the curious came to visit. Some even offered to adopt the baby, and while Wei considered their generosity he decided " the baby's parents put him here and I believe the responsibility to take care for him is mine."
A few days after the baby was abandoned in front of the temple, a woman who declared herself to be the mother left Wei a short telephone message saying that she was not able to care for her son at present, but one day when she was able again, she would come to take the boy home. The mother had also put two bags of milk powder and a feeding-bottle in his makeshift cradle.
"If his parents fail to show up in the future, I will continue to raise him and send him to school to further his education," said Wei who has given the boy the name, Jing Bao, meaning he has some connection with Taoism.
