25 March 2013
The plane
Today I will address the lack of photo overload from yesterday.
My route took me first West, through peoples park, which was great, then South to Jinli ancient area, which was also great.
All up this is about a 4 hour walk, much of it challenging. Not because its hills and steps, but because of construction.
It seems to be no issue really just to have open pits, un guarded wet concrete (with people scootering through it), no footpath at all which sends you headlong into busses, big drops where at least 4 steps should be, plates on the road which arent secured and seem to be bouncing as cars drive over them, people cutting big branches off trees overhead as you pass under, arc welding in the street whilst small children stare at the pretty light, or even high pressure water jetting of the outside of a building with no safety barriers.
These are just a few of the challenges you might encounter as you walk to your destiation.
Due to photo overload, enough of this.
First is peoples park, which was very impressive, nicer than peoples park in Shanghai or the park near Temple of Heaven in Beijing. So many people just joining in with random activities.
Here we have one of about a dozen tea houses which are throughout the park. Some you can buy tea and snacks, others seem to be just spots where you can sit and bring your own food, yet they provide tables, chairs, water, power, cooking areas etc.
Mass ballroom dancing, common across China. No one would dance with me. My dance card is empty.
Here you have the fan dancing, but one old lady has a sword instead. There were quite a few people dancing around with big shiny sharp looking swords.
This is a monument in the park to an incident in 1911. Not sure what incident exactly.
Another fun activity is to write your poems on the ground using water. I wonder if these are dirty limericks?
Like most peoples parks, theres a small area of rides for kids. This photo makes it here only because I could totally read and understand that sign, Da (big) Li (strong) Shui (water), Shou (hand), water hand meaning sailor, hence big strong sailor = popeye. I dont need to do any more studies.
Impressively the park even has a rather large bonsai garden (an oxymoron?). I like bonsai. I suspect its looked after by the public.
The goldfish seem particularly massive here. If that kid fell in he might get eaten.
Then I couldnt believe my eyes, this radio controlled lightweight plane was pulling off the most amazing stunts. I had never seen anything like it, loops, rolls, spins, everything. Its power to weight ratio is massive, the pilot was skilled, it can hover vertically and make stupidly tight turns.
Also I have a steady hand and a zoom lense, so you get another photo.
Last photo of plane, to collect it he put it into the nose up hover position, seemingly used the rudder and a bit of thrust to move it towards himself, then plucked it out of the air. Amazing.
Monday seems to be washing day at this nearby poor person apartment block.
And now I am in the ultra modern re constrcuted Jinli ancient street. There were many signs even in English explaining that bargaining was not permitted and that everything for sale must have a displayed price at all times.
This is very unusual for China, there must have been a lot of people getting ripped off and complaining.
Pandas everywhere, you can get kung fu ones as you see here, a soccer team, batman/spiderman etc.
I took a photo of this girl taking a photo of me.
Self loading semi automatic crossbow. You put the arrows in the top, pull the handle back and it fires. This thing was no joke, I am quite sure it could kill you, so I had to have a go.
About a $1 gets your 15 arrows. No one paid attention to locals using it, but as soon as I sat down a crowd formed. Mocking me. Unfortunately I couldnt turn it around far enough to shoot any of them. A few phrases from my Chinese book of vulgar terms fixed that problem.
The first few arrows you line it up and aim it etc, then you realise you can just yank on the handle at great speed and it generally goes close enough to the target.
A very clever ancient weapon!
Instead of padlocks, it seems you buy a red silk purse and tie it to this tree to express your undying love to the girl you met a few minutes ago.
And now for some food photos.
First up bean curd cake (tofu), served with chilli and shallots. I couldnt resist, the old lady serving me seemed mad as hell, at me only. I watched her serve other people and smile. I couldnt understand her at all.
Her bean curd cake was delicious though, served in a bowl full of chilli oil, it was actually pretty hot too.
Second snack, green onion pastry. Very good, but very oily. Oil overload already today.
I didnt intend to have lunch, but nearby my hotel I found a 2.5km long (no exaggeration) tunnel under the road that you use as a shortcut instead of crossing the streets.
Its a continuous shopping mall, and this particular section is the food section, which at lunch time on Monday was a hive of activity.
I ordered the beef noodle soup and confirmed I wanted it spicy. It was $1.20. Thats why I had lunch, who can turn down a delicious meal for $1.20?
Admittedly you get a lot more noodles than you do beef, and the noodles werent hand made in the store like they should be, but it was still delicious. The addition of celery was a welcome one.
OK, thats enough about beef noodle soup.