Huangzhou

A day trip to Huangzhou had been organised for a bunch of us from Shanghai (thanks again Case and Ben). After 3 an a half hours on the bus without a rest stop (thank you Mr. Bus driver) we were all keen to use the facilities. Well use the facilities, and check out some of the sights. Huangzhou is a small tourist town of around 6-7 million people. The main tourist part of the city is centred around west-lake and we were off to see some the Lingyin temples. This is part of a series of temples, built originally a long time ago, burnt down, built again, burnt down and eventually build most recently in around the late 19th century. The Lingyin temples wind their way up a hill, its still a practising monastery so the odd monk could be seen but they were hard to spot in amongst the 8 million tourists.

Huangzhou felt like a breath of fresh air after the pollution that had been Shanghai, there was sunlight and you could make out things in the distance! Next we fought our way to the pagoda. The lake in front of the pagoda was filled with thousands of turtles, literally. The lake was only about 20 metres across so I don't know how they all survived. I guess the tourists keep them well fed and the restaurants cook them up in the evenings. Avoiding the need to use the escalators and the lift, we walked our way to the top of the tower and enjoyed the views of the area directly beneath the tower.

Further time spent later in the day wandering around the lake was spent eating ice-cream and trying to get chinese ladies to dance. Well that was the aim of certain members of the party, but not necessarily enthusiastically embraced by all. The bus ride back at least involved a roadside pitstop. The gentlemen headed to the front of the bus in the glaring lights to prove their manhood. The ladies took the demure option of squatting in the grass near the bus, it'd been a fun day. The chinese had taken the approach that we were much more of a tourist attraction than the sites of the town and we'll be forever remembered in about 10,000 photos taken both surreptitiously and openly by the local population.