Day 10 - Island Tour
Apr. 17th, 2008 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoWe took a tour boat out onto 千岛湖 (Thousand Island Lake) today. Our tour covered the major southeastern islands in the lake, which are mainly scenic spots, as opposed to some of the islands toward the northwest area of the lake which are known for its animals (there's an island dedicated to monkeys, one to snakes, and one to ostriches of all things...)
The lake itself was formed sometime in the 50's due to the construction of a dam/reservoir/hydraulics station downstream. So technically it's a man-made lake. Now it's also a pretty famous tourist spot.
First island we visited was 桂花岛 (Osmanthus? Island), known for the flowers its named for. Unfortunately, they bloom around August, so all we saw was a lot of greenery. The rocky area near the beach, also known as 石林 (stone forest) was kinda cool, though also a death trap to navigate over.
Second stop was at 黄山尖 (Yellow Mountaintop). We took the tram up (and down) to the top where you can look down on a whole bunch of small islets (300 is the number claimed by the guide). Also according to the tour guide, when looking down from the view at the top, the islets sort of form the characters for 天下为公.
Third stop was 天池岛 (Heavenly Pool Island), formerly a quarry during the South Song Dynasty. There's a pretty pretty koi pond where the sales guy was saying that you have to pay to take pictures there. *rolleyes* There was also a rope bridge that charged 2 RMB to cross, supposedly for luck/longevity. *double rolleyes* Probably the only interesting thing there was the corridors with the different ways of writing 龙 (dragon) and the Song mural.
Last stop was 密山 (Secret Mountain), the main part of which was just a buddhist monastery. There was also a 财神 (god of prosperity) shrine in the back, which I don't think is buddhist, but whatever. According to the map, there were more scenic spots further up the mountain, but apparently we ran out of time on the tour, so we couldn't go up and look unless we wanted the ship to leave without us.
One more thing of note was that, in the lunch that was included on the boat trip, each table had a dish of 螺丝 (from the lake too, and pretty clean), which I haven't had in such a long time. Mmm...
The lake itself was formed sometime in the 50's due to the construction of a dam/reservoir/hydraulics station downstream. So technically it's a man-made lake. Now it's also a pretty famous tourist spot.
First island we visited was 桂花岛 (Osmanthus? Island), known for the flowers its named for. Unfortunately, they bloom around August, so all we saw was a lot of greenery. The rocky area near the beach, also known as 石林 (stone forest) was kinda cool, though also a death trap to navigate over.
Second stop was at 黄山尖 (Yellow Mountaintop). We took the tram up (and down) to the top where you can look down on a whole bunch of small islets (300 is the number claimed by the guide). Also according to the tour guide, when looking down from the view at the top, the islets sort of form the characters for 天下为公.
Third stop was 天池岛 (Heavenly Pool Island), formerly a quarry during the South Song Dynasty. There's a pretty pretty koi pond where the sales guy was saying that you have to pay to take pictures there. *rolleyes* There was also a rope bridge that charged 2 RMB to cross, supposedly for luck/longevity. *double rolleyes* Probably the only interesting thing there was the corridors with the different ways of writing 龙 (dragon) and the Song mural.
Last stop was 密山 (Secret Mountain), the main part of which was just a buddhist monastery. There was also a 财神 (god of prosperity) shrine in the back, which I don't think is buddhist, but whatever. According to the map, there were more scenic spots further up the mountain, but apparently we ran out of time on the tour, so we couldn't go up and look unless we wanted the ship to leave without us.
One more thing of note was that, in the lunch that was included on the boat trip, each table had a dish of 螺丝 (from the lake too, and pretty clean), which I haven't had in such a long time. Mmm...
