任是无情也动人

We 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...

Jiande, Zhejiang, CN

Today is the first day of our travel to where my (maternal) grandfather grew up, in 浙江省,建徳市. Supposedly we're in the boonies, though you wouldn't think it looking at all the modernization in progress in the city. Heck, the place we're staying at (how our hosts are related to us is a little too complicated for me to figure out at the moment; all I could tell is that the eldest male in the house is a brother of my grandfather) is more "modern" than the place my grandparents have in Nanjing. (Of course, that's also partly cuz my grandparents haven't bothered to modernize a lot of their stuff). They've got a TV per bedroom for 3 bedrooms, internet connection (but which can't reach IJ), and hot water.

We arrived here by car. Let me backtrack... Last night, my aunt and uncle (my mom's sister & her husband) drove over to Nanjing from Wuxi. They have have 2 cars, but apparently swapped with a friend's car as it was more comfortable for the trip. This morning at 6 AM, we departed for Zhejiang: my uncle, aunt, grandfather, mom, and myself.

First we spent over an hour trying to figure out how to get onto the freeway from Nanjing. Chinese highways unfortunately lack both prominent road signs and more abundant number of on/off ramps to the highway. Midway, we also spent maybe an hour at a rest stop trying to fill up gas. The problem isnt' that there was a lot of automobiles competing - the problem was that there were also a lot of huge trucks waiting in line for nearby nozzles, thus blocking the way for small cars to get in and out of the single station when trying to fill up gas.

WE passed Hangzhou around noonish, then stopped a little past there at a rest stop for lunch. We ate stuff that we brought with us, though it appears that Chinese rest stops also come equipped with cafeterias, which I'm told actually has decent food as well. The place was certainly clean enough - even the bathrooms, which I daresay is cleaner than the US counterparts (except maybe for the lack of toilet paper).

At any rate, we got to 建德 (Jiande) around early afternoon. Took a small tour of the area, including the banks of the 新安江 (Xinan River) nearby. I took a few photos/videos (which I'll put up after I get back to the US and have a better connection to imageshack).

We had dinner at our host's house. All of it is indigenous foods. I like the various bamboo dishes the most (the bamboo is directly plucked from the wild and grown in the fields, not processed/canned).