Monday, October 23, 2006
Reflecting trip toThousand Island lake
I went on a short trip to Ze Jiang, HangZhou, Qian Hu Dao. It is a man made lake that came about due to the construction of a dam. They had to evacate 2 villages and flood the area to build this lake , the size of Singapore. Zhi Yu and I , together with Chum Chum (haha, Zhi Yu's Garfield,her son hee) took a 5 hours bus trip down to the place. We wanted to go there because of one very beautiful poster.However, when we arrived there, humm, can't say that I am not excited but the view there was not magnificant like what I saw at Xi An. Maybe it had to do with the weather. It was very foggy when we were there so all the mountains weren't very clear. But, it has its own beauty as well. As the name suggested, there are thousand of islands around. We visted 4 main islands on a boat.(similar to our Ku Su Island) Second day, we went to Tong Lu. We went down Tian Mu Xi via a bamboo raft. It was a very relaxing and peaceful ride for me. Looking at the valleys, clear water, mountains and listening to only the sound of the paddle, breaking the surface of the water........what else can I ask for........It is really a place where we can go and take a break. Just take a ride down.....allows me to think through some stuff......search for some answers that is within me........ Just as I was enjoying the scenery and serenity around me, I saw a bunch of China tourists (from my tour) throwing plastic covers that were meant for our shoes into the stream. I was very annoyed by that action. Such wonderful places will be destroyed by China Chinese themselves.
Posted by agnesia at 5:17 AM
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Can't believe what I did to myself
Wanted to just cut my hair to make it neater, ahhhh, I can't believe that i joined in the fun and permed my hair. NO ONE BACK IN SINGAPORE WOULD BELIEVE THAT AGNES WOULD DO SUCH THING. Zhi Yu dyed her hair, Ah Lian straightened her hair, Lizzy and I permed our hair. She did a smaller curl, less bombastic than mine. ahhhhh, when they first saw my hair style, they were all astonished, shocked, speechless.....well, Zhi Yu laughed for like 30 secs non stop before making some comments.
Ok, enough of that. Think now I have to get use to my new hair look.They said that I look fine in it (Ah Lian said it is nice, ha!), so I just have to be confident of it. But one main thing that they all said commented was I must change my dressing to match my hair style. Ha, think I will do something about that.
Hope my pics will not shock anyone of you. Feel free to make comments abt it,hahahahaha!!!
Posted by agnesia at 5:56 AM
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Hu Kou Waterfall
The pictures say it all. All the car sick, vomitting ............... Being there and looking at the view, it is all worth it.(Just to let you guys know, Yan An is a place that lacks water. The toilets there have no flush. I have never used a toilet so dirty in my ENTIRE life. It is s**t piling on s**t filling the whole toilet. YOu will never know how bad it is till u experience it. Because water is scarce there, one would rather drink then to flush it down. They used to have a river filled with water called Yan He but due to environmental changes and building of dams, the river is closed to being empty as seen below) It makes you cherish what you always take for granted especially when we see how pp survive in such harsh condition. But I am glad to hear that the government is pumping in cash to develop this city.
Huang He (Hu Kou Waterfall)
Posted by agnesia at 12:56 AM
On our way to Yan An,Visited Huang Di Ling n Yang Jia Ling
To visit the magnificant Huang He river and hear the roaring of the Hu Kou Waterfall, we must endure a 10 hours bus ride to Yan An. This is a state that has great importance to the Chinese Communist Party that Mao Ze Dong set up. Because this is where he stayed while planning the war against Chiang Kai Shek which he finally won. He stayed in houses that are made from cave, called Yao Dong. They still exist today as you can see from the pictures. It is really an eye opening experience when you get to see all these. It is soo different from the building that we see all the time and to think that pp in Yan An still live in such houses. We visited the house the Mao stayed and found it to be quite pleasant. Though simple, but it is fully equipped.
Huang Di Ling is the tomb of Emperor Huang Di. The forefather of all Chinese.We had to climb 277 stairs to get to his tomb.There is also this small hill which takes 77 stairs to get up and 78 stairs to get down. We were told that by going one round up and down,we will prolong our lives by 1 year.
Posted by agnesia at 12:27 AM
Friday, October 06, 2006
First day at Xi An (Hua Qing Chi,Terra Cotta Warriors)
When we first arrived at the Xi An Train Station, we were welcomed by Ming Cheng Qiang (Great Wall that encompasses the city of Xi An.This wall was built by Tang Tai Zong to protect his city. The bricks on the wall has been replaced by modern ones because people then did not view the wall as a national monuments.They used the bricks to build their houses). Xi An is part of Shan Xi and we were told by our tour guide that if you want to know more about Tang Dynasty's history, you should come to Xi An. If you want to know about Qing Dynasty's history (Kang Xi, Qian Long..), you should go to Beijing.
Our first stop was to Hua Qing Chi. It is the place the house the bathroom of Emperor Tang, his concubine, one of the 4 beauty Yang Gui Fei and Empress Ci Xi. In the later part of history, Chiang Kai-Shek also made this place his home and his office. He was then the leader of KMT Nationalist Chinese and was in the midst of a civil war against Mao Ze Dong's Communist Party. We were told that he fled for Li Shan (As seen the picture above) and hid in one of the cave when Mao's army invaded the place. The cave is still preserved however we did not get to chance to go up the hill.
Terra Cotta Warriors, The Eight's Wonder of the World. I was blown away when I entered the first hall. It is biggest of the 3 halls. Can't really describe the feeling, it is just that you will be awed by what you see. It is like sailing back time. It is a amazing to know that what I am looking at is dated a few thousand years back. Every single warrior looks different and to think that these are made by craftmen soo long ago just made me wonder,"Pp back then are really much more talented than us". The suits that there were wearing, the facial expression....... However, if you guys are observant, you will be able to tell that all the warriors do not have weapons with them. We were told that when Xiang Yu invaded Xian Yang (the capital then), he dugged the grave and removed all the weapons. He was all out to destroy everything that Qin Shi Wang created. Though we were told that Qin Shi Wang burned books and killed scholars during his era to mould pp's mindset, in actual fact, Xiang Yu created more destruction. He burnt down buildings and structure that Qin Shi Wang had created , including his tombstone that took a couple of decades to build. When we were on our way to the Terra Cotta museum, we passed by his tomb and we were told that this is one of the only 2 tombs that haan;t been excavated yet. The other tomb belongs to Emperor Wu Ze Tian (The only female Emperor in the entire China History). One reason is because it is buried below the hill. The other reason is because we do not have the technology to preserve the artefacts. W were told that there will be toxic gas present which is required to preserve his body. Archaeologist believe that his body is still intact due to presence of the toxic gas, thus if ever we want to excavate his tomb, we will need to do so in a vacuum environment. This is something that is not available now.
Posted by agnesia at 11:03 PM
Embarking on the trip to Xi An
On the 1st of October, we embarked on our trip to Xi An. Xi An is one of the places that I always wanted to go. I love China history so it is THE place to go, especially since I am already in China. Before leaving for Xi An, heard from my colleagues that we must be more vigilant when we are there because it is pretty unsafe. The crime rate there is higher and the environment is less developed. However, it did not deter me from making a my way there. Knowing that I will not be able to eat much stuff there (their diet is made up mainly of beef and mutton which I don't take), so we packed lots of food, from bread to biscuits to cup noodles........After having lunch in Shanghai,we headed from Shanghai Train Station. Not knowing the condition of the train before hand, we were anxious to find out. (Because we will be spending 17 hours on the train) To our surprise, it was quite comfortable and most importantly clean. The environment was also safe as they have security guards patrolling the cabin.The only minus point is the toilet. At the beginning of the trip, it is real sparkling clean , but as you approach Xi An, it gets pretty dirty and disgusting. (Just imagine s**t and vomit all over) But overall, still a good experience onboard the train.Anyway as you guys can see from the pics above, we made ourselves comfortable, started snacking,chit chatting.........