Friday, January 05, 2007
Nanjing, Taichee Lake and Hangzhou
I've been very busy over the past week with hall activities, but I shall finish the holiday posts before going on to them.
At Nanjing, we met our next tour guide and went to the tomb of some emperor. On closer inspection of the bricks used to build the tomb, it can be seen that they have words on them. These are the names and addresses of the brick manufacturers. The emperor was a stickler for quality every brick was tested by driving a spear at it. If the brick is chipped or damaged in any way, the family who made the brick got executed. If the brick is fine but the spear is damaged, the family who made the spear got executed. If both are undamaged, the soldier who drove the spear into the brick gets executed for not putting in enough effort. Good thing this doesn't happen nowadays.
After that, we stopped for a quick photo session at a lake side, then went on to the bridge over the 长江(chang2 jiang1). This bridge was built with great sacrifice by the Chinese themselves. At first, they wanted to bring in foreign help, but everyone said it couldn't be done. They said the flow of the river was too fast. However, the Chinese persevered and built it in the end, although some died during its construction.
At the same location, there was a Chinese master who specialises in painting the inside of crystal balls. It looks like an incredibly delicate task. There's a small hole bored in the ball which leads to a small area to paint in. He has to paint mirror images through a little hole. Imagine sticking a paintbrush into a water bottle and painting nice pictures on it from the inside. That's the idea behind it, except that the properties of the glass magnify the images, so the actual painting area is very small.
The night was spent shopping again, except that this time there was a Confucian temple at the shopping street which we didn't go into.
In the morning, we went to a jade museum. The local guide explained how to spot real jade and what the characteristics of good jade are. After seeing some museum pieces, we were brought to the shop area and saw many more jade pieces for sale. Most of the stops we made to learn more about their culture were actually places to buy things.
Due to poor planning, and the fact that no one wanted to buy any jade, we had nothing to do and had to hang around at that jade museum until we had lunch at 1030 in the morning. After that, we left for Taichee Lake.
The good thing about leaving so early was that it was still light enough to see some scenery when we were driving there. Usually this long 7 hour bus ride will only end after the sun has set.
Near the place where we had dinner, there was a musical fountain. Here's a picture of it.
We were told that the hotel we stayed in was right beside the lake. This lake is called 千岛湖 (qian1 dao3 hu2) and came about as a result of a dam built downstream. Thus there are actually villages and settlements under the surface. The waters are so pristine they are directly bottled and sold as mineral water. The hotel at this location was also the best one we stayed in for the entire trip.
The next morning, we took a boat ride on the lake. The boat was open air and there was a nice breeze, although it did get chilly at times. Due to our limited perspective, we could only see a small part of the lake, so we couldn't see the many islands that dot the lake's surface.
After the ride, we went on to Hangzhou and saw their famous 西湖(xi1 hu2). This lake is quite shallow, but the deep mud is what makes it dangerous.
Our next attraction was a village which produces their national drink, 龙井茶(long2 jing3 cha2). It's grown without the use of pesticides. They gave us a very long talk about the wonderful health benefits of their tea, including a demonstration which is remarkably like the one used by the MLM company selling a water dispenser. They dripped iodine onto the tea leaves then showed that adding water to make tea made the blue black colour disappear. The tea is really expensive, S$60 for a 250g can.
The activity for the night was to watch a medley of performances. The focus was more on acrobatics than anything else, and it was quite exciting. There was an act where an acrobat flipped metal bowls onto her head with her foot while balancing on the shoulders of a guy on a unicycle. Unfortunately, there were many sideshows going on at the same time, making it easy to miss something exciting happening.
At Nanjing, we met our next tour guide and went to the tomb of some emperor. On closer inspection of the bricks used to build the tomb, it can be seen that they have words on them. These are the names and addresses of the brick manufacturers. The emperor was a stickler for quality every brick was tested by driving a spear at it. If the brick is chipped or damaged in any way, the family who made the brick got executed. If the brick is fine but the spear is damaged, the family who made the spear got executed. If both are undamaged, the soldier who drove the spear into the brick gets executed for not putting in enough effort. Good thing this doesn't happen nowadays.
After that, we stopped for a quick photo session at a lake side, then went on to the bridge over the 长江(chang2 jiang1). This bridge was built with great sacrifice by the Chinese themselves. At first, they wanted to bring in foreign help, but everyone said it couldn't be done. They said the flow of the river was too fast. However, the Chinese persevered and built it in the end, although some died during its construction.
At the same location, there was a Chinese master who specialises in painting the inside of crystal balls. It looks like an incredibly delicate task. There's a small hole bored in the ball which leads to a small area to paint in. He has to paint mirror images through a little hole. Imagine sticking a paintbrush into a water bottle and painting nice pictures on it from the inside. That's the idea behind it, except that the properties of the glass magnify the images, so the actual painting area is very small.
The night was spent shopping again, except that this time there was a Confucian temple at the shopping street which we didn't go into.
In the morning, we went to a jade museum. The local guide explained how to spot real jade and what the characteristics of good jade are. After seeing some museum pieces, we were brought to the shop area and saw many more jade pieces for sale. Most of the stops we made to learn more about their culture were actually places to buy things.
Due to poor planning, and the fact that no one wanted to buy any jade, we had nothing to do and had to hang around at that jade museum until we had lunch at 1030 in the morning. After that, we left for Taichee Lake.
The good thing about leaving so early was that it was still light enough to see some scenery when we were driving there. Usually this long 7 hour bus ride will only end after the sun has set.
Near the place where we had dinner, there was a musical fountain. Here's a picture of it.
We were told that the hotel we stayed in was right beside the lake. This lake is called 千岛湖 (qian1 dao3 hu2) and came about as a result of a dam built downstream. Thus there are actually villages and settlements under the surface. The waters are so pristine they are directly bottled and sold as mineral water. The hotel at this location was also the best one we stayed in for the entire trip.
The next morning, we took a boat ride on the lake. The boat was open air and there was a nice breeze, although it did get chilly at times. Due to our limited perspective, we could only see a small part of the lake, so we couldn't see the many islands that dot the lake's surface.
After the ride, we went on to Hangzhou and saw their famous 西湖(xi1 hu2). This lake is quite shallow, but the deep mud is what makes it dangerous.
Our next attraction was a village which produces their national drink, 龙井茶(long2 jing3 cha2). It's grown without the use of pesticides. They gave us a very long talk about the wonderful health benefits of their tea, including a demonstration which is remarkably like the one used by the MLM company selling a water dispenser. They dripped iodine onto the tea leaves then showed that adding water to make tea made the blue black colour disappear. The tea is really expensive, S$60 for a 250g can.
The activity for the night was to watch a medley of performances. The focus was more on acrobatics than anything else, and it was quite exciting. There was an act where an acrobat flipped metal bowls onto her head with her foot while balancing on the shoulders of a guy on a unicycle. Unfortunately, there were many sideshows going on at the same time, making it easy to miss something exciting happening.
posted by cosine @ 12:10 PM 
