In China, Labour Day is celebrated as a 7 day holiday, and so with a week off school, my fellow foreign teacher, an Italian by the name of Chiara Braccagni, led me off to a tour of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. During that holiday, we took a day off from Hangzhou to visit the town of Shaoxing.
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| This is where our trip began in Shaoxing. |
The 'Shaoxing Travel Guide' describes the town as located between 29.14' - 30.16' north latitude and 119.53' - 121.14' east longitude, northeast of Zhejiang province, bordering Ningbo in the east and adjacent to Hangzhou in the west.
With a total population of 4.3 million, of which 324,000 are described as 'urban', it covers an area of 7,901 sq kms.
The figures quoted in the Beijing Torchrelay website, however, are somewhat smaller.
The trip to Shaoxing was certainly an adventure, if only because we had no idea when we bought the bus tickets, if (given it was a Golden Week Holiday period) we would be able to purchase return tickets for the same day once we got there.
The bus trip was really good and really fast, but upon our arrival we at first had difficulty finding the ticket office. Then we had difficulty understanding the illuminated display board, and for a short time thought that there were no buses to take us back to Hangzhou. Since we were to check out of the hotel the following morning, that would have been a problem.
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| An interesting landmark to commence the journey |
Having finally purchased return tickets (no we couldn't buy return tickets from Hangzhou), we set off to discover whatever there was to discover. We found a No.3 bus to take us somewhere, but discovered that the driver was also somewhere - somewhere not around the bus. There were people sitting inside it who told us that it was indeed a public bus (It didn't look like it), but no one seemed to know when it would leave, how much it would cost or where the driver was.
Eventually both the driver and the conductor turned up, and after paying a few rmb for our tickets, we set off. As it turned out, we didn't go very far before we found the park that Chiara had decided that she was looking for. Had we walked, we probably would have beaten the bus. On the other hand, had we walked we would not have met a few lovely people, two of whom later joined us in a canal boat ride. The place to get off the bus by the way, is where those two buildings are in the photos above.
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| Shaoxing Canal front homes |
Shaoxing is a canal city like Suzhou and for something like 60 rmb 2 people can take a leisurely ride up one of the canals. Leisurely would probably be the right word to describe the ride on any other occasion, but as we had taken a small craft with 4 passengers, one of which was a very overweight (but currently slimming down) white guy, every time the old coot turned to look at something, the boat 'pitched' and both passengers and captain screamed at him to sit still.
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| A Relaxing Cruise |
Our fellow passengers were two girls we chatted with on the driverless No 3. bus at the bus station. We ran into them as we were approaching the ticket office for the 'cruise' and invited them to join us. They finally agreed, but then insisted on paying their own passage.
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| Dirty linen in Public? |
One of the things you often see in China, is people washing their clothes in the nearest body of water, and living by a canal makes it just so easy to wash your clothes. Whilst the location sounds ideal, given the rather 'shaky looking' foundations to the local domiciles, I'm not sure if I would feel particularly safe. And given our western concern to control every possible negative possibility in life, I doubt that anyone with kids would be allowed to live in such a place.
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| Nothing like privacy at home. |
I would take this opportunity to point out that if I actually lived in such a place, I doubt that I would be as friendly a resident as were these locals. Can you imagine people day in and day out looking in your back door; watching you wash your clothes; and constantly taking photos of you and waving? I'm pretty sure I know what type of gesture I would be returning.
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| A very famous bridge. |
At this very bridge in the photo on the left, there is a restaurant which we stumbled upon after our boat tour was over.
Chiara and I were both desperately hungry, and so we took up a position at a vacant table on the patio, ready to partake of a nice meal 'alfresco'.
But there were two problems. The first was that the waitress was petrified of us. I know that sounds funny, but honestly, some people just panic when faced with dealing with a foreigner. This lady was so frightened, that she kept telling me that she didn't understand foreigner's language and told us to go away.
A lady at the next table finally stood up and told her off, telling her that I was in fact speaking Chinese. Everyone thought the whole scene quite funny. We were not amused, because Murphy's Law was at work. Right when it was crucial that we eat immediately, we both for the first time encountered someone who had trouble taking our order.
To add to this problem, was the fact that two beggars to whom we had refused to give money (They were beggars nos. 5 and 6 in a 300 metre walk), simply would not go away, despite being told off by customers and passing locals.
As we were finishing our meal the man started at me again, and I told him that if he really needed money for food, that I would buy him a meal. Both he and the woman agreed, and so I ordered a take away meal, which again did not please the waitress. We left the restaurant carrying takeaway, which deftly got passed to two beggars, much to the disbelief of every passerby who happened upon the scene. As the proverb goes: 'No good deed goes unpunished" - It would have been cheaper and far less hassle to have just given them each 1 rmb when they first approached us.
With stomachs full, we headed off to check out the King of Yue's Palace and Fan Li Tower on FuSha Hill - not that we knew that that was what we were going to check out. We just saw a tower on a hill and headed off in that direction. Now I want to take this opportunity again to thank those of you who write appreciative letters for the photographs I take, and again I apologise to those who expect me to be a professional travel writer, but I am learning.
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| Street outside of the King of Yue palace |
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| From the First Building of the King of Yue Site looking back toward the street |
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| Some height perspective. |
I'm learning to take photos of all the signs to be found in tourist spots. I'm finding it useful for a number of reasons, the most important of which is that it tells me where the surrounding photos were taken.
Then of course it also provides me with some useful information for you the reader. With that said, here are some of the texts from the King of Yue site, together with photographs of the area.
Please note, I have done my best to type these texts precisely as recorded. (ie. the mistakes are not mine!)
No. 1: Kingdom Yue bordered on Kingdom Wu. Their local customs were compatible. The peoples of them belonged to the same nationality; however, the two kings were from different clans.
For the sake of their individual interests, the two kingdoms attacked each other. In 494 B.C. Yue was defeated in the Fujiao (near Taihu Lake) War.
Gou Jian sued for peace with humble words, protecting his kingdom from being conquered. In 490 B.C. Gou Jian returned to his home after being released from a jail in Kingdom Wu.
In order to conquer Kingdom Wu to wipe out the disgrace, he slept on brushwood, tasted the gall, and worked with a will to make his kingdom strong. Powerfully assisted by Grand Masters Fan Li and Wen Zhong, the king as well as his ministers made great efforts to build a strong state.
Through multiplying its population, and educating and training its people for 20 years, Kingdom Yue made itself strong and finally conquered Kingdom Wu, writing the most brilliant article of Kingdom Yue's history.
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| Magnificient palace gardens |
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| More Garden scenery |
No. 2: The Yue nationality's source was distant and its stream long.
Its source can be traced back to the Humudu culture, 7000 years ago, and its stream was spread into the nations of Japan, the Southeast Asia and so on.
In a long historical course of multiplying, developing and spreading, the Yue nationality admitted the Central Plains Culture coming south and absorbed the Chu Culture approaching East.
ShaoXing was the place where the Yue nationality lived in compact communities.
GouJian, King Yue, recovered and developed his kingdom in his native land of Shaoxing, setting a precedent in the ancient times of China that a weak state defeated a strong.
Although time has brought great changes to Shaoxing, there still remain some human affairs, sites and relics. The Palace and the Gate Structure of King Yue are famous historic sites of Kingdom Yue.
Currently, they have been opened as memorial halls to exhibit some notables, historic sites and relics for historical record and mommemoration.
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| Lots more steps to climb yet mate! |
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| One avenue after another on the ever onward and upward climb to the top |
Fei Yi Tower (Copied Exactly):
490 BC Fan Li, the Prime Minister of Yue state, had the Fei Yi Tower buiet on the top of Fusha Hill to defend itself. apainst the enemy of wu state militany.
It was also used as a look out tower The towestanding (tower standing) here Was rebuilt in 1998 and uneanth artifacts of Yue state are disreayed.
Should you ever get the chance to visit this wonderful place, please be aware that you need lots and lots of stamina. It also might be a wiser choice to visit it in winter.
The photos provided here don't do justice to the number of steps that you need to climb, and that is just to get to buildings that you need to ascend and descend.
I forget just how many buildings there are in this complex, but each one is built further back up the mountain. Each overlooks the other.
Although I haven't put it here, there is one photo taken of me by Chiara that shows exactly how out of breath I was on reaching the top step of one particular pavilion.
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| The structural size put in perspective |
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| Rich Tapestry of Life in Ancient China |
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| Oriental flavour |
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| For those interested in Architecture |
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| Perched above the world. What a view it must have been in days gone by |
After you are done through climbing steps however, you then need to climb the mountain to get to the tower.
We of course had chosen probably one of the hottest days of the week to go climb this mountain, and were both exhausted by the time we got to the top.
We spent considerable time just resting and cooling down in the breeze that we were ever so thankful to find there.
Although the view from the top is worth seeing, one cannot but wonder what the view must have been like even 100 years ago.
Whilst the journey down the mountain was easier than the journey up, the best thing about arriving at the base, was that there was a little park with certain amenities, that provided us with sufficient water to drench ourselves in an attempt to ward off heat stroke.
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| Memorial gardens |
When we finally exited the park and found our way back to the entrance, Chiara and I had a little argument as to which street it was that brought us to the entrance, and which street we should take to return to the Bus Station. Since I had proven to both of us many many times that I am always wrong, we went the direction she dictated, and wouldn't you know it, Murphy's Law struck again, and it turned out that I was right in the first place.
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| Wouldn't you love to live here? |
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| The Italian beckoning me on. |
Finding ourselves with not enough time to see anything else in Shaoxing, and having just a little too much time to warrant catching a bus back to the bus station, Chiara decided that it would be best if we just walked back to the bus station. So off we went; her leading, and me grumbling all the way saying: 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'
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| More Architecture |
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| Found within the Yue Complex |
I hope you have enjoyed this little snippet of our Labor Day Holiday. In Due course I shall present some more photos and articles about our trip to Hangzhou. On July 11th I take a train to Shanghai and fly off to meet a boat that will take me away to a 9 day visit to a famous international tourist destination. Hopefully in a month or so I shall bring you that story as well.
Until then, Best Wishes!
R.P.BenDedek
rpbendedek@hotmail.com
See also
R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www kingscalendar com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he is currently teaching Conversational English in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.
Stories from China at Magic City
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
