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Published: March 15th 2011
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Huzhou
Temple Forgive me for being lazy, I haven't updated you all in a while.
My trip to Hong Kong turned out to be a carrot dangled before my ever expectant eyes! We didn't go in the end, which was a shame but I had a very nice relaxing weekend anyway, and to be honest it was much needed. It was a shame not to catch up with Michelle and others though.
I'm afraid you'll all have to make do without reading about the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong and let me tell you all about Huzhou instead...
After a very long week and a rather uneventful birthday, Friday brought a much needed social engagement and celebration. I met up with a friend from the English corner I go to on Sunday evening, Alpha and he treated me to a wonderful spicy Hotpot dinner. It was a feast but to be honest most dinners here are feasts! Alpha is a kind and generous man who speaks English wonderfully. He told me a little of Chinese history and specifically Huzhou's history, we talked of his business, England, and the differences between our cultures. Stuffed to the brim with scrumptious food and
Huzhou
Temple gate feeling ever so slighlty waddly after dinner we took a stroll through Ai Shine Square. Ai Shine Square is an ultra modern part of the downtown area and to be honest it's quite tasteless and bland, it could be any big city anywhere in the world. There are department stores, shopping malls, even a Dairy Queen (which I think is an american ice cream store). It's disappointing and lacks the character of the rest of the city. However, in saying this, there is a beautiful park area right in the centre; which has many statues and scultpures and a man made river, pond with lots of koi carp. On sunny days I like watching children with their parents and grandparents feeding the fish. They jump out of the water like minature blue wales, their golden fins splashing and their hungry mouths competingfor that morsel of food.
In the middle of the park there is a giant sculpture of a bridge, it is in two parts, on the top is the bridge and underneath is what is meant to be the reflection of the bridge on the water. This creates a circle in the middle of the sculpture, the circle
Huzhou
Chicken is extremely important in Chinese culture (so Alpha tells me). It represents unity, signifies calm and connotes serenity and peace. Underneath the bridge there are hundreds upon hundreds of characters carved into the stone. I have no idea what they say, but it as an amazing modern tribute to chinese culture and heritage. The sheer size of it is breathtaking, my photo does not do it justice!
This weekend I took a trip with many of my colleagues to part of Huzhou countryside. We left school at 8.30 Saturday morning and arrived in the mountains 40 minutes later.The village we visited is a mountain of peach trees, and the fresh air worked wonders for my polluted mind. Every step I took up that mountain, every breath washed away a lot of the negativity I'd been feeling about the previous weeks. We began with a tour of the peach farm, of course this was all in chinese and I understood absolutely nothing. However the scenery was far too beautiful to care.
At 11.30 we had a feast of gargantuan proportions, dish after dish was brought to us by the waitress and I ate, oysters, fish, rabbit, tofu, beef, chickens neck
Huzhou
The river at night (which is seriously good), and lots and lots of vegetables. There was even a plate of dog meat, which not many of our party ate, only two teachers I think had a piece. I also had a few glasses of beer, which would have turned to many more if one of my colleagues had succeeded in making me down every glass I touched.
The chinese people toast everything and many times and over and over again, it is a very strange custom. I was toasted more than 20 times over the course of the meal. 'Our English friend' 'ganbei'. I thought it best not to drink so much when the sun is not yet past the yard arm! Although I did one, so as not to insult and this was met with gasps and applause. I just kept thinking you should me on Friday night in England, this wouldn't be much of a feat in comparison.
After lunch we wandered to the jetty on the lakeside and drank green tea and ate nuts and dried fruit. I really don't know where my colleagues get there appetite from as I was absolutely stuffed to the brim. The sun was
Huzhou
They're taking over warm and the conversation mostly Chinese yet I began to understand what they were talking about, perhaps not every word or even the whole conversation but it had something to do with school and lesson planning!
Perhaps my grasp of mandarin is better than I thought!
I've got so much more to write about but I fear it's getting too long and to be honest it's lunch time and I"m hungry, all that writing about food doesn't half start the stomach rumbling and the mouth watering.
Enjoy the photos!
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