Sis' Visit
Posted On Thursday, September 30, 2010 at at 3:33 AM by AlvinMy sister, Paulette who has been based in San Francisco as a psychiatrist for the last 15 years, came back to HK for a bit of "relaxation" - plenty of HK style milk tea (港式奶茶), visiting the local tea houses (茶餐廳), catch up with old friends and of course a trip up the Big Buddha in Lantau Island. Here are a few cool pictures.
Having Fun On The Lakes Of Jiangsu - 太湖 And 瘦西湖
Posted On Thursday, September 9, 2010 at at 1:46 AM by Alvin
During our time spent in the province of Jiangsu (江蘇), we ventured out to the contrasting lakes of Tai Wu (太湖) and Slender West Lake (瘦西湖) in Yangzhou (揚州). Tai Wu was huge and round while Slender West Lake was slim and long. Tai Wu was out in the country side and took us 2 hours to get to the different shores around the cities of Wuxi (無錫) and Suzhou (蘇州), while Slender West Lake sat prettily in the centre of the tidy city of Yangzhou. Yangzhou had been lauded for over a thousand years as THE place to relax and enjoy life's many finer aspects and famous poems had been written that are recited in the classrooms of present day China - 故人西辭黃鶴樓，煙花三月下揚州 ... 十年一覺揚州夢，贏得青樓薄倖名 etc. and the city had in recent years (2006) been awarded by the UN as "The Most Livable City In The World" (聯合國人居獎城市). 
The Slender West Lake located on the northern edge of Yangzhou was a masterpiece of "lake-scape" gardening. We took our time relaxing in the many beautiful scenic spots around this lake before boarding the high speed rail back to Suzhou. Tai Wu was altogether on a different scale, we visited the Tai Wu lake shores by the cities of Wuxi (無錫) and Suzhou (蘇州) on two separate days. We spent an enjoyable day walking by the lake park lands of Wuxi where we visited the scenic areas of 黿頭渚, 蠡湖公園, 渤公島 and the modern architectures of 蠡湖之光. The second day, we set off to the other lake shores of Tai Wu near Suzhou and visited the fishing village of 西山 and 石公山 via the graceful Tai Wu Bridges (太湖大橋) which were made up of 3 bridge heads; these bridges reminded us of Key West but on a smaller scale. To our surprise, we found on the way numerous up-market holiday resorts and posh villas as well as lake view restaurants. It was such a memorable day-out as we took a "local" bus back to town where we experienced the excitement of seeing fishermen, local punk rockers, farmers, builders, office ladies boarding and disembarking the bus over almost the entire length of 53 bus stops !! At the end, we were mighty glad to be getting off !!
The Waterways and Gardens Of Jiangsu - 江南水鄉、園林
Posted On Monday, September 6, 2010 at at 11:26 PM by Alvin
The waterways and gardens in the province of Jiangsu (江蘇) had been known as the most serene, picturesque and inspiring in China for over a thousand years. Artists, scholars, musicians and avid travellers from all over, flog to this area of China to experience the finesse, subtlety and beauty of the famous gardens of 拙政園 and 獅子林 in the tidy city of Suzhou (蘇州); as well as the "most beautiful village built around canals in China" - Zhou Zhang (周莊). Firstly the famous gardens in Suzhou differed from those in Beijing in that the Suzhou gardens had always been owned and cared for by private owners (私家園林) and those in Beijing were known as "Royal Gardens" (皇家園林) which had been the back gardens and playgrounds for past Chinese emperors and royalties. We spent a good three to four hours in 拙政園 (known peculiarly as The Humble Administrator's Gardens...) and strolling along narrow alleyways and admiring the lotus, waterlilies and pines. Although as usual, the Gardens were swamped with fellow countrymen, we managed to find a few scenic corners and enjoyed a bit of refreshment amongst the serenity and peacefulness these Gardens offered. 
On the other hand, Zhou Zhang (周莊) was the gem that we had hoped for and the ancient village did not disappoint; its extremely beautiful waterways, bridges and non-intrusive stall owners really made this a must-see destination for everyone. Very different from the majestic and grandeur nature of Venice, Zhou Zhang typified the petite bridges, waterways and villagers (小橋、流水、人家) that made this part of China famous around the world. Every corner we turned, we were met with a soothing and pleasant new angle of this village. We were particularly impressed with the ancient village being "lived-in" by local villagers and commercialism was not as rampant as we had feared. The old part of the village was thankfully tucked away far from the bus station and no kidding, on our way in, we observed parking spaces enough for over 150 coaches; surely over the weekend this place would be crowded. Sit back and enjoy the photos of these Gardens and waterways.
One side note of interest, there was once a famously rich merchant called 沈萬三, during the early Ming Dynasty (元末明初), who lived in Zhou Zhang and the dish he prepared for the Emperor was even more famous - pig trot dipped in glassy soy sauce (萬三蹄) and this dish was sold all over this ancient village - tasty !!
Nanjing (南京) And Its Mountains (中山 And 茅山)
Posted On Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at at 1:54 AM by Alvin
The royal city of Nanjing (南京) had always held a special place in China's history; not only was Nanjing an ancient capital with the beautiful surrounding mountains of Chung Shan and Mau Shan (中山 and 茅山) but the city also suffered horrific war time losses in recent memory and these horrendous human atrocities are solemnly commemorated at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall (南京大屠殺紀念館); we spent over 3 hours pouring over the millions of photographs, records and files on display inside this hall and we were extremely moved by the resilience of the peoples of this great city. But first things first - we arrived in Nanjing just as a rare occurrence of a tri-typhoon system was on its way out of the province of Jiangsu (江蘇). The Xuan Mu Lake (玄武湖) located opposite to where we stayed was moody but at least the colorful music fountain by the lake lightened up our spirit. We spent the good part of a day visiting the mountain of 中山 where our national Father Sun Yat Sen (孫中山) was buried at the 中山陵 Mausoleum. We also spent around 2 hours exploring the nearby area of 靈谷寺 which was located inside welcoming and shady lush green forests - made even more lush by a huge rain storm that lasted half an hour, luckily we took shelter inside the 9 -storey tall 靈谷塔. Of course, during our stay in Nanjing, we also visited the famous area of 秦淮河 and 夫子庙.
The following day we travelled about 60 km East and visited the Taoist holy mountain of Mau Shan (茅山). Since ancient times, Mau Shan had been famous for the Taoist priests (茅山道士) who had attained magical powers to ward off harmful spirits; the priests would normally point a closed first and middle fingers towards the attacking spirits and believe it or not, the spirits would then just subside in a puff of smoke. Yeh, just like that !
