The Many Faces Of Lu Shan - 廬山真面目 !
Posted On Monday, November 9, 2009 at at 9:07 PM by Alvin
The famous mountain range of Lu Shan (廬山) is located about an hour's bus journey from Jiu Jiang city (九江). During our stay in Lu Shan, we really experienced first hand of what made Lu Shan so special - its changeable weather ! We decided to stay for 3 nights at this beautiful mountain and we were based at the quaint town of Kuling (牯嶺 ). There had been many legends as to how this town was named - the funny one was that the British that gathered here to cool off from the furnace temperatures of Nan Chang (南昌) named the town : Cooling. Yeh right. Lu Shan during this time of the year - late Autumn, was a colorful patch work of different shades of red, yellow and green as the trees fought for our attention with their beautiful Autumn leaves; this mountain oozed an atmosphere of a big welcoming hug with these colors and its fresh mountain air. Our first two days were greeted with a soft Autumnal sun and we explored the many pretty forests, lakes and walkways such as 如琴湖, 蘆林湖, 仙人洞一滴泉, 石門澗懸索橋, 三叠泉, 植物園 and 含鄱口. 
We also had a long tea break after our visit to 三叠泉 waterfalls and sampled the famous local tea - 廬山雲霧茶; the tea shop owner told us that the tea leaves normally receive most of the moisture from the year-round fogs and mists which Lu Shan had been famous. We were surprised to hear that and found it difficult to imagine on this sunny blue day how Lu Shan could be foggy at all; this all changed on our last day. When we woke and looked out of the windows, we were greeted with the thickest fog I had ever come across (even including the London days) ! We could not see more than 3 meters away ! We went for a long walk and luckily we did not get too lost in this fog. Throughout the day, the fog and mist came and went very suddenly, say within 1 minute, ALL the fog would clear and we were left with such picturesque mountain and lake settings; then after just a few minutes of admiring the beauty, the fog would roll in and we would be back to extremely poor visibility again. This was such an interesting experience and Lu Shan really lived up to its reputation of never showing her many faces all at once - as the famous Sung Dynasty (北宋) poet 蘇軾 wrote during his visit to Lu Shan : 不識廬山真面目，只緣身在此山中。
The Cities Of Jiangxi (江西)
Posted On Saturday, November 7, 2009 at at 12:40 AM by Alvin
During this trip, we visited two very interesting cities in the Province of Jiangxi (江西) - Jiu Jiang (九江) and Nan Chang (南昌). Jiu Jiang was a surprise find of this trip as this city was only to be our over night stop but this city by the Yangtze turned out to be pleasant and full of memorable sights. We spent 2 hours strolling along the misty Yangtze river bank and we visited the tower of 潯陽樓 where reputedly the fictitious hero of Sung Jiang (宋江) in the famed Chinese classic novel (水滸傳), penned his famous anti-establishment poem before becoming the leader of the 梁山泊 108 rebels. We spent an hour inside the 4-storey 潯陽樓 where there was a precious set (one of only 4 complete sets in the world) of 108 porcelain figurines made from 景德镇, depicting the famous rebels as well as a large painting of these famous fictional characters. It was great fun to be sitting in this tower and imagining you were one of these 108 rebels, all ganged up and ready to rumble and cause some major damage to the empires of the feeble emperors in dynasties of centuries past. Further down the Yangtze river bank, we paid visit to the scenic sights of 鎖江樓, 長江大橋 and 琵琶亭. Jiu Jiang city was blessed with a number of fresh water lakes such as the 甘棠湖 in its inner city centre that gave the city a beautiful setting. All in all, we felt that the good part of a day we spent in Jiu Jiang was enough to appreciate its charm and character.
The capital of Jiangxi - Nan Chang (南昌) was altogether different in character. To start off with, the size of the city was immense as we struggled to cross the un-forgiving multi-lane road traffic. The city centre was dominated by the enormous square of the August 1st Nan Chang Uprising Memorial (August 1st, 1927 being commemorated as the year when the PLA was founded). The open area at the square was a welcome breathing space and solitude amidst the endless streams of cars and buses buzzling around this busy city. Undoubtedly, the landmark of Nan Chang had to be the famed tower of 滕王閣 located along the Yangtze river branch of 赣江 and was first built in the Tang Dynasty over 1,000 years ago. The poet 王勃 almost single-handedly put 滕王閣 on the map and the lips of all scholars at the time after he wrote the 滕王閣序 that contained the immortal lines - 落霞與孤鶩齊飛，秋水共長天一色. Say no more and just sit back and contemplate such beautiful poems.
Porcelain Capital Of The World - JingDeZhen 景德镇
Posted On Thursday, November 5, 2009 at at 12:20 AM by Alvin
Be careful where you walk in this city - JingDeZhen City (景德镇市) had been the Porcelain Capital Of The World for over a thousand years ! When we arrived in town, we were greeted with endless specialist shops selling the most delicate and beautiful porcelain ware I had ever seen. All different shapes, sizes, colors, usages and the lighting and displays on offer in these shops were so dazzling that I really had to be careful not to knock over a few of these lovely handicrafts. We stayed right at the centre of JingDeZhen City near the People's Square and just a few minutes walk to the various interesting museums dedicated to the culture, history, manufacturing and painting of these highly prized porcelains. We visited the Traditional Kiln Halls (古窯區) located about 3km outside town. The Halls consisted of dedicated kilns (in use today) for the production of specific porcelain wares as well as working areas where we observed the porcelains being moulded and painted by experienced masters of their crafts. One really had to hold on to their wallets here as there were numerous beautiful items on sale such as pots, plates, bowls, chopsticks, cutlery, traditional Chinese face masks, vases all made and painted with the utmost delicate touches.This was also a very educational visit as we learnt the difference between earthenware and porcelain wares and how JingDeZhen earned its worldwide fame ! An interesting fact that we had learnt was that the porcelains which didn't make the Royal Court selection were all scattered to pieces on purpose, in case they were re-introduced by mistake or re-sold as being "marketed" as "almost made the Royal Court" - a photo below shows those porcelains which didn't make the cut and had been dug up as ancient artifacts. A truly worthwhile stop on our itinerary in the Province of Jiangxi (江西省) !
Chilling Out On Mount Huangshan (黄山)
Posted On Monday, November 2, 2009 at at 12:59 AM by Alvin
Autumn travelling in China could be fun, if you like bumping into sudden cold weather fronts ! Temperatures dropped to the single digits as we entered one of the most scenic of all mountain ranges in China - Huangshan (黄山). We spent one night at the outlying city of Tunxi (屯溪) where there were characteristic buildings (徽派建築) aplenty of the Province of Auhui (安徽省). We strolled along the famous Old Street (老街) that was full of tea shops, the ever-present souvenir stalls as well as shops selling water color paintings (山水畫) of Huangshan; the Old Street had a rather relaxing feel to it and we enjoyed our excellent dinner before our climb on Huangshan in the coming days. We then spent 2 days at the foot of Huangshan, yes, two duvets required for these nights with sub-zero temperatures and the hotel was even kind enough to lend us a lamp heater for our room ! We strolled along the hot spring (温泉) areas on the first day followed by our ascent to the top of Huangshan on the following day. We were greeted by Huangshan with a blue blue clear Autumn day during our climb and we witnessed the spectacular sea of clouds (雲海) in the early morning (this was around 9AM) and of course the ever present Huangshan Pine trees (黄山奇松).The Huangshan Pine (黄山松) had been a subject of prime research interest as these trees release a particular type of organic acid that facilitate their firm-rooting into the rocks of Huangshan and could thus live to hundreds of years amid the harsh mountain conditions. We witnessed numerous odd-shaped rocks (怪石) during our hike on the top of Huangshan; the best of all without doubt, had been the "Stone That Flew Here" (飛來石 - picture on the top) where we spent half an hour just admiring this sheer stunning vista.
The hot springs(温泉), sea of clouds (雲海) , Huangshan Pine trees (奇松) and odd-shaped rocks (怪石) had been known as the four attractions of Huangshan (黃山四絕). We thoroughly enjoyed our walk on the top of Huangshan where we visited the famous land marks of 始信峰, 排雲亭, 光明頂, 鰲魚峰, 蓮花峰, 玉屏樓, 天都峰, 一線天 and 慈光閣. We spent 2 hours on our way down to 慈光閣 and enjoyed our dinner at one of the two opening restaurants (low season) chatting over our fun day !
