What's Up Al ? 遊記隨筆 生活點滴

Oddly enough, despite our many journeys in China, we had never experienced Autumn in its full glory - we had been both too late (freezing cold, bleak and wet) or too early (balmy, green and humid), so this year we were determined to get it just right ! We based ourselves in the provincial capital of Nanjing (南京) and we visited one of the mountains nearby which had been reputed as one of the four main sites to view China in its fine Autumn colors - Qixia Mountains (栖霞山). The other three sites being in Suzhou (described below), Changsha and Beijing. We were not disappointed as we were welcomed at the entrance of this beautiful mountain park, by the plethora of Autumn colors and the fragrance of smoky tobacco leaves, all set against a cobalt blue sky.
Mother Nature had picked Autumn as the season to best experiment with her paint brush, as we were dazzled by the intense, full-bodied and concentrated colors amongst the flora of Ginkgo (銀杏), Red Maples (紅楓 - three starred and five starred), Japanese Maples (雞爪槭), Chinese Pistache (黃連木), Zelkova (櫸樹) and Tallows (烏桕). All these plants unwittingly created an incredible patch work of colors - scarlet, amber, gold, russet, crimson and auburn, all vying for passers-by's attention. We also visited the other site famed for its fiery Autumn colors, Tian Ping Mountain in Suzhou (蘇州 天平山), also in the province of Jiangsu; although smaller in scale, Tian Ping Mountain was more compact, petite and cute when compared to Qixia Mountain's majestic and grand style. As a side trip, we took the efficient and fast (!) bullet train to Chuzou in Anhui Province (滁州 安徽) and visited the famous (yeh, every place in China could be famous for something !) Langya Mountain (琅琊山) which was the location of the Drunken Old Man Pavilion (醉翁亭). The famous Sung Dynasty (北宋) scholar/poet/official - 歐陽修, left his indelible marks here with his famous travel-log/poem of 醉翁亭記, with its immortal lines - 醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之間也。水落石出。峰迴路轉。When we read the stone tablet with these engraved lines, we felt like we had been time-shipped back 1,000 years and witnessed this famous man writing this poem with a glass of his favourite tipple !