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Published: March 5th 2009
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This walk around Tongli is a walk I would like to give as a gift to my dad who has told me how he has recently taken to getting on the local public buses in his home town of Matlock and tells the driver that he wants to go to 'Anywhere'. This is made possible as the bus ticket has a special straight UK pensioner fee of Free to any stop including 'Anywhere'.
Dad then catches the bus towards a certain direction and, after a while, about 10 miles or so, he gets off the bus and walks home again... Something to do. He told me that the UK public buses are full of OAP's having a warm just riding around and then he laughs and laughs which makes me laugh, something new between me and dad. No space for paying customers. Coooool.
I like the idea of going to Anywhere then just meandering back. I also like the idea of OAP's having a team meeting whilst riding the buses. So, this trip was done with my dad in mind and it's for him to put in his pocket when he is on the bus.
Three weeks ago
today, I was taken to Tongli by an ex student of mine, Joey. I met Joey at 8pm, 2nd December, it was my 7th hour at Web whilst it was his last because he'd finished the course. We kept in touch and recently he kindly offered to take me to see Tongli because he knew that I like the older towns.
Our day in Tongli was rain drenched but his company made up for the weather. Joey's a very busy man and I know that he took precious time out of work to pick me up at 1.30 to take me to Tongli. The town is lovely but has a real touristy feel. The best bit of the day for me was being in good company, being treated to a trip out, being picked up, being driven in a car for the first time since August and being kinda looked after for a few hours.
My favourite visual moment was looking out of the Gaterhing Beauty Pavilion window from where the ladies of the family viewed the surrounding area having not been allowed to walk around and mix with the men on the ground floor some 200 years
ago.
We walked the town and also visited the island in the middle of the lake at Tongli where there was a timeless buddhist temple that I could see feature in any timeless film because it was just a temple on an island but which I did not photograph. My only fear going over to the island was that the old iron boats were very low in the water. The surface of the lake almost reached the bottom of the windows. After Tongli, we collected Joey's wife and we all went for dinner.
I would like to thank Joey for his kindness and generosity, for taking me out, for taking time off work and for being such a good host. The time he gave was very much appreciated.
The following words have been written by Joey about Tongli.
Tongli belongs to Wujiang in Jiangsu Province.it is located along the bank of Taihu Lake and to the east of ancient canal,with eight lakes surrounded ;it is 80 kilometers away from Shanghai Hongqiao.
It is a old small town.There are many old and interesting stories about Tongli.One of them is about the name of Tongli.The old people
who live in Tongli told us that Tongli wasn’t named for this plase in the past.A long time ago this place was named “FuTu”which meand rich land.In fact it was true that there were many rich people lived in FuTu.And now you can see many big houses of them were kept in Tongli.The news that Futu was very rich was spreaded to other places .So there were many bad people to come here to thieve and loot things.The rates of crime were going fast during a time.So,oneday the people who lived in Futu decided to change the name of the place to protected themselves.Then Tongli was named for this place.
Tongli is a typical water village in China.There are many beautiful views in it.Tuisi garden ,Jiayin hall,Chongben hall,Tongli lake,Three bridges,Pearl tower,Mingqing street etc. are all in Tongli. Now I will introduce two views .
1、 Three Bridges are very important to the indigenes.They are close and form a triangle.They were made of stones .But they are beautiful and mean lucky to the indigenes.The names of the Three Bridges are Taiping,Jili and Changqing, which mean peace,dexter,lucky.So if there is a good thing happended in the indigene’s family,such as wedding
reflection in the mirror saved by graffiti
German imported mirror saved by the locals during the Cultural Revolution by writing pro Mao slogans and the birthday of 66 for people,they must go over the Three Bridges to ask making them lucky.
2、 The best view in Tongli is Tuisi garden.It began to be built in 1885.Ren Lansheng was its master.He was a high-grade officer in the end of Qing dynasty.When he was on the position,he made a big mistake,so he lost his job.Then he came back to his hometown---Tongli,and began to build his home.Though he lost his job,in fact he still wanted to back to the government of Qing fynasty.So he named his home ---Tuisi Gurden,it meaned he would change his mistake and hoped the emperor to forgive him and give the job back to him.After a year,he was really back to be a officer in Anhui.But unfortunately,he was dead in a accident.So he had’t lived in Tuisi guard,just his families lived in.
In Tuisi gurden,there are two precious things.The one is a LinBi stone.It looks like a tortoise .A story told if you touch the stone ,you will get your life longer.The second thing is the mirror.The mirror was imported from Germany when the Tuisi gurden began to be built.During the Cultural Revolution time, many old and precious things was
destroyed by the Red Guards.The indigenes wrote a banner on the mirror to protect it.The banner on the mirror meant Long Live Chairman Mao.So the Red Guards wound’t destroy it.
But I think one thing should be thought about by the Tongli local government.Currently, if you are a stranger and haven’t bought an entry ticket,you cannot enter the town.I think this is wrong.If you need to visit the views,you should buy the ticket.But if you only enter into Tongli,don’t see any views ,you shouldn’t be asked to buy the ticket.The action now the Tongli local government does,will be bad to the local economy and Tongli’s honor.
If you are interested in Tongli, you could come to Tongli to see the views by yourself.
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Erica
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Tongli
On a difficult day Tracey, you yet again raised my spirits and determination to get to China. Miss you lots. xx