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Published: October 10th 2010
Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu
The dome in the auditorium, over 30m across & lit by an amazing lighting display…..apologies to anyone who has subscribed to the Travelblog site & received multiple Emails about the last YYW, or who received an email but couldn't find the newsletter. They have had server problems & the last YYW (The Large Torturing Machine), is there but doesn't appear on the link I sent. I think the problem has now been resolved.....
…..Wenyi is back in Yangzhou, to visit her boyfriend, Farhat, a young contractor from the United Arab Emirates working with Jay, a Canadian, at a solar panel plant to the north of the city. I suggest we catch up before I head off for the holiday. She calls her new “big sister” Shen Yue , who suggests a new restaurant near her apartment. It's very new, beautifully appointed but, we are assured, reasonably priced. We all agree to try their speciality, a fish dish. She doesn't check the price & all is lost in translation until the bill arrives. An embarrassed look as she inspects the bill followed by an admission that she didn't check the price before ordering. Yes, it was a very big bowl but at ¥350 for fish head soup so it should be.....
…..I
just discovered that Farhat is actually from Xinjiang, the western, Moslem, Uigher province of China. There is a lot of suspicion of Uighers among the majority Han Chinese & he was afraid Wenyi would not want to know him if he admitted to being from Xinjiang. Now the truth is out she still appears to be happy & so, of course, is he.....
…..Kevin lives up to his promise of a lift to Gaoyou, north of Yangzhou. He also lives up to his reputation for punctuality & arrives half an hour late. There is a huge lake there, the sixth largest freshwater lake in China. I am going for the same reason that Edmund Hillary climbed Everest, because it is there. It's an overcast, drizzly day but thankfully not too cold. His factory is on the west side of the lake, Gaoyou city on the east. After a long drive through the northern industrial area, then countryside & a small forest we end up at a dilapidated lakeside settlement. No sign of a ferry but several motorboats moored near some decaying sheds. A boatman offers to cross the lake for ¥60. With the rain & spray I tuck myself
Gaoyou, Jiangsu
East side of Gaoyou Lake in behind the windshield & only catch glimpses of fishermen in flat bottomed boats in the muddy brown-green-grey water until we reach Gaoyou city.....
…..I am deposited on a long spit of land at the Zhenyou temple. Interesting but not spectacular, then a short ferry ride to the city & a ride in a rickshaw trike past groups of women sorting tonnes of shrimps fresh from the lake.....
…..all Chinese food is fast food. It's rare to wait more than four or five minutes for something to be brought to the table so a Chinese fast food restaurant in this case just means cheap & cheerful. Tasty but not remarkable. This cold is tiring me. I go for a sleep at the hotel in the afternoon. That's not my usual style when I'm travelling.....
…..being the Saturday after National Day everyone not working in the evening is out on the street or in the park. There are fireworks that could be mistaken for bunker-busting bombs, hot air balloons, (precarious, brightly coloured paper bags with a candle attached to the bottom on a thin wire frame), being carelessly despatched to fly or land among the watching crowds. A
very good busker playing the erhu in the park almost has a fight with a street trader who sets up about five metres away with amplified music. Students as usual queue up to speak English to a real, live foreigner.....
…..in China even a nondescript, grubby town like Gaoyou can surprise & delight. A beautiful little park containing the home of a famous literary figure is a great little haven & full of interesting rooms, artwork, traditional furniture & real lush green grass on which to sit on a fine, blue sky Sunday morning. Gaoyou is named after the Post Office & was a main centre when the post office was for military & administrative communications. It's time to go to Wuxi so I just look around the outside of the Post Office complex then go to find the bus station.....
…..Wuxi, was originally named Youxi (literally “Have Tin”) after a mine was opened there almost 2 millenia ago. In uncompromisingly logical Chinese fashion, after the mine had been worked out the name was changed to Wuxi (“No Tin”). It's official population is around four & a half million, not a large city by the standards I'm used
Wuxi, Jiangsu
Bridge over a canal to now. However it gives every impression of being a huge city & looks much more like parts of Shanghai than the quiet little town of Yangzhou with (officially) a similar population.....
…..I expect Lingshan to be another Buddhist temple, interesting, historic but maybe with a hint of been-there-done-that. The entrance cost of ¥180 is a temptation to not bother but after a fifty minute trip from the city centre, standing up on a crowded bus, it seems pointless not to go in. The entrance & another gate inside look quite familiar from other temples. There is the gigantic Buddha statue on a hill in the distance but from here it doesn't look so impressive. The grounds are certainly big. I notice there are several temples in various styles around with a lot of parkland in between.....
…..there is a huge crowd around the fountain. Not just any fountain. Nine huge dragons form a circle around a heavily ornate column topped by a lotus flower. After a while the recorded voices of the deep throated chanting of Buddhist monks is heard & the fountains start up. As the hydraulic display takes off the column rotates, the lotus petals
Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu
9 Dragon Fountain in full flow open & the baby Buddha inside is revealed, bathed in the watery breath of the nine dragons. Over the top, literally, but very impressive.....
…..the main building appears to be a recent construction. In fact it's not a temple but a Buddhism Palace, built within the last decade. There is a queue approximately three hundred metres long to get in. It's a beautiful, clear, sunny day but not too hot. I'll see how quickly the queue moves.....
…..China hasn't perfected the art of moving large (huge) queues efficiently but I believe they have made more progress than their western counterparts. After about fifteen minutes I am at the massive front doors of the palace putting on some rough cloth overshoes from a large basket. These are to protect the polished marble floors inside. Not only the floors but the walls too are made of marble. The level of craftsmanship on the endless stone & wood carvings, painted figures & designs, doors handles, columns, picture frames etc. etc. is quite staggering. In addition to these traditional crafts there is state of the art LED lighting on the ornate ceilings in a main hall which has a similar layout to
Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu
Dome in the main hall of the Buddha Brahma Palace, constantly changing colour some western cathedrals, with a central dome, but the dome is constantly changing colour. The floors have ornate designs of polished marble built into the floors.....
…..that's not all. Walking through marble corridors, past colossal meeting rooms & a gigantic restaurant the tide of visitors is finally washed up into an auditorium with a domed ceiling that must be between thirty & forty metres in diameter. The dome is constructed of hundreds of lotus petal panels which are illuminated in a stunning, constantly changing lighting display. I would like to just lie on the floor & watch it for an hour or two but there are around a million other visitors who need to move through to look up in wonder. My photos cannot do justice to this but have a look at the Photobucket link above anyway. I'm already planning my next visit. I'm sure the drugs to produce the same effect would cost far more than the ¥180 entrance fee & I still haven't seen the Great Buddha statue yet.....
…..walking past the fat, laughing Buddha statue, covered with scores of cast, bronze children, each one different, & the huge uplifted palm I begin to see
Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu
Lighting display in the huge auditorium just how big the Da Fo (Big Buddha) statue is. The statue alone, without the base & lotus leaves on which it stands, is eighty eight metres high. That makes it bigger than the Statue of Liberty (ninety three metres from the ground to the top of the torch). Seven hundred & fifty tonnes of bronze. It's simultaneously beautiful & awe inspiring.....
…..I'm not sure yet whether it's a mistake or not, to attempt to reach the highest accessible point of the statue, inside the lotus leaves, at the feet of the huge Buddha. At any public holiday time in China the numbers of visitors to popular venues is just overwhelming. Having climbed the two hundred & seventeen steps I thought I'd go a little further. I end up stuck in a massive queue for the lifts, apparently the only way to access the base of the Buddha.....
…..the half hour wait is worth it. The view across Taihu (Tai Lake) is fabulous, the view of the Buddha from here reveals that it is truly a colossal statue. By now that's not a surprise. I make my way through the heaving crowds eager to touch the Buddha's massive
Tortoise Head Peninsula, Wuxi, Jiangsu
5 storey high statue in a Daoist Temple feet & go back down the steps, suitably awed.....
…..the next day starts out in similar fashion, a long bus ride (not quite so long this time) to Tortoise Head Peninsula, a park on the shores of Taihu. I catch a tantalising glimpse of two scooter riders, possibly just having been crashed, wildly swinging fists at each other. No carefully practised Kung Fu moves here, just two ordinary men in an ungainly brawl. The bus turns the corner & the scene is gone. Initially the crowds at the park are just too much. Crammed onto a ferry boat I end up on an island in the lake. There is one crowd being funnelled onto the island while an equal crowd is waiting patiently for the return trip to the mainland. Finally I find some, still heavily populated, but slightly less claustrophobic surroundings.....
…..just when you assume that there's nothing much to see China produces something delightful. In this case a gorgeous, colourful little shopping street, with restaurants & street food, (& ice cream). Then there is a Daoist temple. Five storeys with walkways around each level affording views of a five storey high statue, beautifully painted, its forearm
Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu
The Great Buddha, 88m high, not including the base and 750 tonnes. Bigger than the Statue of Liberty. covered with money & cigarettes, offerings made by devout, or possibly just hopeful, visitors.....
…..a friend from Yangzhou is in Wuxi this week & I am offered a lift home. It's an educational experience. Wuxi is only around a hundred & fifty kilometres from Yangzhou. Apart from fuel (say, in a 1.6 litre car ten litres, or in China around ¥60), there are road tolls of ¥50, ¥30 (across the big bridge over the Yangzi River at Zhenjiang), & ¥20, (on the freeway into Yangzhou). Total cost, without car maintenance, wear & tear etc; ¥160 (Au$24). The cost of a bus ticket; ¥55 (Au$8.40).....
…..Shen Yue is a very useful personal bargain hunter & delivers an elegant bedspread set she found in Nantong for ¥100. A great wedding present for Suzy. Mind you she needs to find more bargains for me to recoup some of the cost of the fish head soup. She won't be allowed to forget that in a hurry.....
Some menu items at the new restaurant: Thousand Island Lake Organic Head
Thousand Island Lake Organic Snakehead
Thousand Island Lake Organic Fish Body
Abalone
Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu
View from the feet of the Great Buddha Sea Cucumber Juice Button
Hong Men of Wild Boar
Fragrance Gluttonous Frog
Tin Package Beef Rib
Secret Cook Way of Sheep Meat
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