May Day in China has in the past decades been a 'golden week' holiday, but last year that was changed, and now our holidays from May First have been shortened.  And so it was that this May Day, my anticipated trip to Jinan to meet Chiara was cancelled, because this year the holiday became nothing more than a 3 day long weekend.

Chiara who hails from Italy and who spent time in Suzhou, is currently studying in Beijing. You may have noticed her article Songzhuang Art Village in Beijing here at Magic city last month.

Columns inside North Entrance to YanDu Park

After having cancelled my trip to see Chiara, I received a call from a friend in Suzhou, and agreed to go there to meet with her. I invited a foreign teacher and a Chinese friend to accompany me, but then those plans fell through.

Finally I rescheduled my trip to Suzhou to next week, because my teaching schedule combined with the school sports day will provide me with a 4 day weekend.

Despite all my plans turning to nothing, early Friday Morning I received a call from a Chinese friend who lives in the town of Dagang. She and her family were coming into Yancheng to visit YanDu Public Park, and she invited me to join them. I decided to accept the invitation.

Sophie Cho (New Zealand / Korean) and I had been there before, but on that occasion I did not have my camera with me, so when invited by Chen Yu to visit YanDu Park, I jumped at the opportunity.

With that background information now provided, I shall proceed to simply show you some photographs. I do hope that you like them.

The following photograph was taken directly inside the North Entrance (Bei Men) of YanDu Park, and the columns shown in the photograph above can be found both to the left and the right of what you see below.

Inside the North Entrance of YanDu Park Yancheng

The next 6 photographs are general location photographs. YanDu park is build around a (presumably) man made lake. It is quite a tranquil place. One can do a little boating on the lake, and surrounding it are a number of places that provide a variety of activities for visitors.

After walking for a little while, Chen Yu, her husband, her daughter and I took a break at a covered stadium like area overlooking the water. As we left we ran into a group of school children. I think that what ensued came as a shock to my Chinese friends, but for the foreigner, it was just par for the course. I got mobbed!

When their teacher asked me to pose with the children, I thought he meant pose with the group. When I agreed, I found myself separated from my friends and being chased down a ramp so that each and every individual student could be photographed with me in front of the South Gate Monument.

I found myself running backwards whilst videoing the horde of students pursuing me. I guess in all, it took about 30 minutes to get free of the little tykes.

Cut off from my Friends and surrounded by the yellow hordes

That's right kids! Stay on the other side of the garden bed!

South Entrance Monument at YanDu Park

Actually, because it was all taking so long, Chen Yu's husband and daughter decided to disappear and go buy lunch. When I finally got free, Chen Yu and I headed back to the 'Stone Gate Waves' so that I could take photos. We were there earlier but my camera wouldn't work. It turned out that the flap covering the memory card on the camera was open, thus preventing taking photos.

Just some nice scenery that includes yellow lillies at YanDu Park

This next photograph shows the formal entrance to the 'Stone Gate Waves' area, and is followed by two more shots taken of the interior of what can only be described as a man made canyon. The last photograph is of the waterfall. This is a very nice area in which to travel, and it does have it's risks judging by the number of ice creams and drink bottles dropped into the water as people tried to stop themselves from falling into the water. Not to mention the number of people with wet trouser legs.

Entering (or exiting) the 'Stone Gate Waves' in YanDu Park

Watch your step in this water course in YanDu Park

A cavern section of the water course in YanDu Park Yancheng

The Waterfall. Enter at the top, walk down the stairs and go through the canyon.

Stone Gate Waves

The Scene is made up of stones weighing 5,000 tons and the water inside comes from purified lake water with 8 meter falling. The stones, water and wave plowing create a mountainous atmosphere as described by Wang Wei and Meng Haoran "Clear water runs on stones" and "Adventures in the stone gate".

When Chen Yu and I finally arrived back at the North Entrance, a group of young people spotted me and began calling out. It turned out that two of them were Chen Yu's students. The following photo is one that Chen Yu took using my camera, as the boys (none of whom were known to Chen Yu) posed with me while their friends took photos using their cameras.

Students from DaGang YanCheng

Leaving the young people, we were headed back to the Entrance when I was intercepted by a group of locals who wanted to know where I came from. Chen Yu is the lady to the right of the group. She is calling her husband on the phone, and she is carrying a bag and wearing a striped sweater.

Nice bunch of folks

There you go. That's how I spent the first part of May Day 2009. The second part involved going out to dinner with a very lovely lady who had just had a very bad hair day! Oh if I was only allowed to tell you about that story. Or even better, to show you some photos of how the hair turned out!

Ah! Life in China is many things, but boring it isn't!

Best Wishes! Have a great Day!

R.P.BenDedek

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (http://www.kingscalendar.com/), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in 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.