Emperor Bing's Tomb and 赤湾

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On Sunday Caitlin and I journeyed even further than I had the day before. We trekked out to Chiwan, a small fishing village just south (yet part of) Nanshan. I thought we were getting off at the last bus stop, but it wasn't, so I'm wondering where else the bus goes. Chiwan is so far out it's like being in a different country. There are few cars, few buses, people will climb 3 on to a motor bike. I could smell fish. It's a slow-paced town and seems completely unaware of the hussle and bussle half an hour away. While we ate lunch one of the restaurant employees folded dumplings in the main room while watching TV; the other employee washed dishes and cooked in back until the phone rang--it was food order and the employee #1 took off on a motorbike and employee #2 resumed the dumpling making. Unfortunatly, he also changed the TV channel away from a horrible western movie with English subtitles to the Chinese version of American Idol--I think it was the first round because the contestants sounded like screaming monkeys.

Some say Chiwan is the town that put Shenzhen on the map. Caitlin and I were there because of what it did have that Shenzhen didn't: an Emperor's tomb.

Emperor Bing was the last ruler of the Southern Song Dynasty. He was a child and ruled for a year. With the Mongols advancing and invading, the story goes, a general grabbed the boy Emperor and jumped off a cliff rather than let them be captured. His tomb is in Chiwan.

There weren't many people at the tomb or many beggars, for which I was happy. Once again, I saw laundry drying. The tomb isn't very big, but it's got more flags than I cared to count and plenty of offerings. There wasn't a lot to see and we left soon after arriving.

Across the street was a park. I love China's parks. This one had flowers I had never seen. It also had a frog (I've seen toads in the wild, but never frogs--ditto for Caitlin)... and tadpoles! I also saw a very skinny lizard fun across my path. This was not Shenzhen!

We wandered around the park, looking at the plants and happy couples on benches. One tree had many red flowers beneath it and a child was taking great delight in kicking them as far as he could.

We wandered through the town again, relaxed and refreshed and waited for the bus back to chaos.

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Photos

Chiwan
bus, mountain, dirty white hotel building, main street...