Memories of 18 July 2004
Nanjing + Wu Xi
As Ms Wang say we were very punctual cause at 7.30am, everyone already gathered at the hotel lobby and was ready to start the journey for the day, she brought us to Zhong Hua Men (Zhonghua Gate) to take a lot but if we want to go in we have to pay for the tickets out of our pockets. We did not went in, just took some pictures outside the "Zhonghua Gate".
[Zhonghua Gate]
Zhonghua Gate, means Chinese gate, was the biggest and most splendid city gate of Nanjing city wall in the Ming dynasty(1368-1644). The gate was built from 1366 to 1386 and originally named Gate of Gathering Treasure, since legend says in the construction, the wall collapsed again and again before a Box of Gathering Treasure was buried under. The whole structure was built with huge bricks and special cement made from lime, tung oil and sticky rice juice, extraordinarily strong.
The delicately designed gate has four archways, and three trap cities which were the enclosed vacant lots between the archways. On the gate, there are 27 hiding caves where more than 3,000 soldiers can ambush in wartime. The biggest one is 44.34 meters high, 6.84 meters wide. Every archway has a wooden gate, and in addition an iron gate, which would be put down from top of the city in case of the wooden one was broken through. Then those enemy soldiers entrapped in the trap city would be cleaned by the ambush with ease. On the top of the tower, there used to be a watchtower and other structures.
Following that, we went to Jade factory. We received that at 9.30am. The Jade factory was known as Nanjing Tao Si Gong Mao You Xian Gong Si. Below ticket was given by the Jade factory when we entered the place. It was a very beautiful place. We were being introduced to different varities of jade. Then we were allowed to walk around and see if we want to buy anything. We were looking at the jade and we bought 1 piece of jade which costs about S$120 but my sister said it's a gift for me cause I think too expensive to buy it. So she buy for me. But I really like it a lot.
We had an early lunch at the Jade factory at about 11.00am and lunch for today was Nanjing local dishes. Sandy scared that we were not used to the Nanjing local food, so she treated us to some soup. The local Nanjing food did not suited my tastes so I did not eat a lot. Xiao Yuan met us here and we bided Ms Wang farewell here before we headed for Nanjing Chang Jiang Da Qiao then to Wu Xi.
[Nanjing Chang Jiang Da Qiao-Yangtze River Bridge]
The bridge flies over Yangtze River, northwest of the city. It was the first double deck and double track highway and railway bridge designed and constructed by Chinese themselves. As a milestone, it was Chinese people's pride. The construction of the bridge started in 1961 and ended in 1968. The highway bridge flies 4589 meters across the river, 1577 meters over the water and is 15 meters in width excluding two-meter-wide pavements on both sides while the railway bridge is longer and narrower.
The bridge totally has nine piers, of which the highest one towers 85 meters and its base covers 400 square meters. The highway bridge approach is full of Chinese characteristics. Rising 70 meters high, two bridge towers stand on each end of the bridge. Inside of towers, elevators reach the two decks and watchtowers atop. The bridge banisters are decorated with 200 cast iron relief inlays. Beside the pavements, there are 150 pairs of yulan lamps. Like a rainbow the bridge spans across the river. When night falls, with more than 2,000 various lamps turned on, it looks like a pearl string of the Yangtze River.
Then we leave "Yangtze River Bridge" for Wu Xi at about 1pm, the bus journey to Wu Xi was about 3 hrs. A long journey. We picked up our local tour guide "Xiao Mi" before we proceed to "Taihu Lake".
[Taihu Lake]
With an area of 2250 square kilometres and an average depth of 2 metres, Taihu Lake (or Lake Tai) is the third largest freshwater lake in China. Some 90 islets, large or small, plus the presence of many fleets of fishing junk boats add to its landscape, making it a remarkable spectacle. The lake has to its credit a thriving fishing industry as well as its ornamental limestone rocks that is native to no other place. These are much favored as accessories used in decorating traditional Chinese gardens in China. Out of all the other islets, Turtle Head Islet is the place most worth visiting.
First we went to the hottest favourite attraction known as "Taihu Lake" which was about 4.45pm when we reached there. "Taihu" was obviously very different from "Xi Hu". From the picture below, the 5 pictures of "Taihu Lake" showed how beautiful "Taihu Lake" was. After visiting "Taihu Lake" , we went for dinner in a restaurant near "Taihu Lake". The dinner was not bad.
At about 7pm, we reached Kai Da Da Fan Dian. As Wu Xi was not very big, there were not many attractions to visit. So we had a very early night. But you could visit the hotel surrounding on your own cause there were many shops around.
My Thoughts:
"Zhong Hua Gate" was like SG version of the "Tang Dynasty" but more spectular. It was built in the past to prevent other countries to attack Nanjing which I don't know what was the name in the past. Following that, the trip to the Jade Factory had let me understand the beauty of jade. Buying the "small" jade was expensive but distinct. Every jade piece was different even though they may be of the same design but the colour of the jade was distinct.
"Yangtze River Bridge" had beautiful scenary as it was a very nice park. "Yangtze River Bridge" is a 3-in-1 bridge. At the display room, there is a display of the "Yangtze River Bridge" model which was a mini version. We went up to the top floor to see the "Yangtze River Bridge". The wind was very big there but from the top, the view was very magnificent. The "Mao Zhu Xi" statue at the door was a rememberance for many.
The tour guide, "Xiao Mi' say "Hangzhou see shu tou, Suzhou see ya tou, Nanjing see shi tou, Wuxi ken gu tou, Shanghai see ren tou". He was quite a funny guy. He told us a lot of stories & history of "Wu Xi" and "Taihu Lake". "Taihu Lake" was real beautiful and the local government designed it like a theme park. There were not many people around, so actually quite good for picture taking. I think "Taihu Lake" was too big, so people were at different parts of "Taihu Lake", making the place less congested as compared to "Xi Hu".
We had an early dinner at one of the restaurant. At "Wuxi", it looked quite differently from the other previous places. It had its own beauty. "Wuxi" was a very small place so there are not much attractions here. We had an early night. After 7.00pm, it's our own activity time. The hotel was situated near the bus & train station. From our room, we can see the train station. Due to the fact that the hotel was near the bus & train station, the place was full of people but there are also many shops around the place. We can walked around the place but we did not do so, the others went round shopping. We had an early night cause it was too tiring already. But we managed to buy the famous "Wuxi Spare Ribs". It was in vacuum form, so easy for us to bring back home to Singapore.
As Ms Wang say we were very punctual cause at 7.30am, everyone already gathered at the hotel lobby and was ready to start the journey for the day, she brought us to Zhong Hua Men (Zhonghua Gate) to take a lot but if we want to go in we have to pay for the tickets out of our pockets. We did not went in, just took some pictures outside the "Zhonghua Gate".
[Zhonghua Gate]
Zhonghua Gate, means Chinese gate, was the biggest and most splendid city gate of Nanjing city wall in the Ming dynasty(1368-1644). The gate was built from 1366 to 1386 and originally named Gate of Gathering Treasure, since legend says in the construction, the wall collapsed again and again before a Box of Gathering Treasure was buried under. The whole structure was built with huge bricks and special cement made from lime, tung oil and sticky rice juice, extraordinarily strong.
The delicately designed gate has four archways, and three trap cities which were the enclosed vacant lots between the archways. On the gate, there are 27 hiding caves where more than 3,000 soldiers can ambush in wartime. The biggest one is 44.34 meters high, 6.84 meters wide. Every archway has a wooden gate, and in addition an iron gate, which would be put down from top of the city in case of the wooden one was broken through. Then those enemy soldiers entrapped in the trap city would be cleaned by the ambush with ease. On the top of the tower, there used to be a watchtower and other structures.
Following that, we went to Jade factory. We received that at 9.30am. The Jade factory was known as Nanjing Tao Si Gong Mao You Xian Gong Si. Below ticket was given by the Jade factory when we entered the place. It was a very beautiful place. We were being introduced to different varities of jade. Then we were allowed to walk around and see if we want to buy anything. We were looking at the jade and we bought 1 piece of jade which costs about S$120 but my sister said it's a gift for me cause I think too expensive to buy it. So she buy for me. But I really like it a lot.
We had an early lunch at the Jade factory at about 11.00am and lunch for today was Nanjing local dishes. Sandy scared that we were not used to the Nanjing local food, so she treated us to some soup. The local Nanjing food did not suited my tastes so I did not eat a lot. Xiao Yuan met us here and we bided Ms Wang farewell here before we headed for Nanjing Chang Jiang Da Qiao then to Wu Xi.
[Nanjing Chang Jiang Da Qiao-Yangtze River Bridge]
The bridge flies over Yangtze River, northwest of the city. It was the first double deck and double track highway and railway bridge designed and constructed by Chinese themselves. As a milestone, it was Chinese people's pride. The construction of the bridge started in 1961 and ended in 1968. The highway bridge flies 4589 meters across the river, 1577 meters over the water and is 15 meters in width excluding two-meter-wide pavements on both sides while the railway bridge is longer and narrower.
The bridge totally has nine piers, of which the highest one towers 85 meters and its base covers 400 square meters. The highway bridge approach is full of Chinese characteristics. Rising 70 meters high, two bridge towers stand on each end of the bridge. Inside of towers, elevators reach the two decks and watchtowers atop. The bridge banisters are decorated with 200 cast iron relief inlays. Beside the pavements, there are 150 pairs of yulan lamps. Like a rainbow the bridge spans across the river. When night falls, with more than 2,000 various lamps turned on, it looks like a pearl string of the Yangtze River.
Then we leave "Yangtze River Bridge" for Wu Xi at about 1pm, the bus journey to Wu Xi was about 3 hrs. A long journey. We picked up our local tour guide "Xiao Mi" before we proceed to "Taihu Lake".
[Taihu Lake]
With an area of 2250 square kilometres and an average depth of 2 metres, Taihu Lake (or Lake Tai) is the third largest freshwater lake in China. Some 90 islets, large or small, plus the presence of many fleets of fishing junk boats add to its landscape, making it a remarkable spectacle. The lake has to its credit a thriving fishing industry as well as its ornamental limestone rocks that is native to no other place. These are much favored as accessories used in decorating traditional Chinese gardens in China. Out of all the other islets, Turtle Head Islet is the place most worth visiting.
First we went to the hottest favourite attraction known as "Taihu Lake" which was about 4.45pm when we reached there. "Taihu" was obviously very different from "Xi Hu". From the picture below, the 5 pictures of "Taihu Lake" showed how beautiful "Taihu Lake" was. After visiting "Taihu Lake" , we went for dinner in a restaurant near "Taihu Lake". The dinner was not bad.
At about 7pm, we reached Kai Da Da Fan Dian. As Wu Xi was not very big, there were not many attractions to visit. So we had a very early night. But you could visit the hotel surrounding on your own cause there were many shops around.
My Thoughts:
"Zhong Hua Gate" was like SG version of the "Tang Dynasty" but more spectular. It was built in the past to prevent other countries to attack Nanjing which I don't know what was the name in the past. Following that, the trip to the Jade Factory had let me understand the beauty of jade. Buying the "small" jade was expensive but distinct. Every jade piece was different even though they may be of the same design but the colour of the jade was distinct.
"Yangtze River Bridge" had beautiful scenary as it was a very nice park. "Yangtze River Bridge" is a 3-in-1 bridge. At the display room, there is a display of the "Yangtze River Bridge" model which was a mini version. We went up to the top floor to see the "Yangtze River Bridge". The wind was very big there but from the top, the view was very magnificent. The "Mao Zhu Xi" statue at the door was a rememberance for many.
The tour guide, "Xiao Mi' say "Hangzhou see shu tou, Suzhou see ya tou, Nanjing see shi tou, Wuxi ken gu tou, Shanghai see ren tou". He was quite a funny guy. He told us a lot of stories & history of "Wu Xi" and "Taihu Lake". "Taihu Lake" was real beautiful and the local government designed it like a theme park. There were not many people around, so actually quite good for picture taking. I think "Taihu Lake" was too big, so people were at different parts of "Taihu Lake", making the place less congested as compared to "Xi Hu".
We had an early dinner at one of the restaurant. At "Wuxi", it looked quite differently from the other previous places. It had its own beauty. "Wuxi" was a very small place so there are not much attractions here. We had an early night. After 7.00pm, it's our own activity time. The hotel was situated near the bus & train station. From our room, we can see the train station. Due to the fact that the hotel was near the bus & train station, the place was full of people but there are also many shops around the place. We can walked around the place but we did not do so, the others went round shopping. We had an early night cause it was too tiring already. But we managed to buy the famous "Wuxi Spare Ribs". It was in vacuum form, so easy for us to bring back home to Singapore.
posted by Sherry at 7/16/2005 10:06:00 AM
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