Post by Ruth on Oct 8, 2006 11:56:08 GMT 7
Found myself with a free day towards the end of the holiday week. Grabbed a friend and headed for a park in the next city. We had enjoyed the flowers at the park in the spring and witnessed the workers planting beds of flowers at that time. I thought the fall flowers would be worth seeing. They weren't as spectacular as I expected, but the day was filled with gems, nevertheless.
I first saw this creature through a camera lens and thought it was a hummingbird. It was quite a bit larger than the other butterflies that were fluttering over the flowers, and there were several of them zooming about and drinking nectar. I finally decided it must be a moth, because of its antenna and its really long proboscis, but it wouldn't cooperate and stay still for me to get a good look. Does this look familiar to any one? I'd appreciate being educated.
Our area of China does not get the gorgeous fall leaf colors of Ontario or the northeastern USA. We seem to go from green to brown; I miss the colors. These are the only colorful leaves we saw:
The park kept our attention for about an hour. After much discussion about what to do next, we decided to head for the beach near my friend's sister's home. This beach is the nicest in the area and is between Huludao and Xingcheng. On the way we spied a small park with a waterfall, so had the cab driver stop and let us out. (He only charged us half the fare quoted because we didn't get all the way to the beach.) What a delightful find. The pond, rocks and waterfall are all manmade, but that doesn't take away from the beauty that this oasis provides on the corner of a rather busy city block.
If you are so inclined, bring your chess pieces and have a game of Chinese chess in this idyllic setting:
We climbed to the top of the waterfall and discovered a paved walkway that led off into the distance. People we met said that after some time we would find a gazebo so we kept walking, and walking, and walking...until we hit a dead end at a navy base, where I'm not allowed to go. I was afraid to take a picture of the gate, just in case they confiscated my camera. Nevertheless, across the road was another hideaway park, with the promised gazebo.
We spent some time resting in this peaceful and secluded place (no one else in sight) and then headed on down the road to the beach. It was quite a distance and I was tired, so we hopped on a bus to finish the journey. At the beach I spied the fishing boats in the distance and got the brilliant idea to buy some crabs for my darling husband who was slaving away on English grammar lesson plans at home. One fellow had some large crabs, but they were dead. Another lady had some that were alive, but they were small and the price seemed a little high - but what do we know? What are cell phones for? My friend called her sister to ask what a fair price is. She was told to absolutely NOT buy the dead ones. I kinda knew that was a bad idea. My friend's brother-in-law works at the beach. His business is hauling the fishing boats out of the water on a train track sort of setup. Her sister called him and down the beach he came to find us. His advice was to wait an hour until the fishing boats came in, so we could get fresh ones for a good price. He went back to his business and we went back to the tourist area for a drink and snack, and a rest in the shade.
October Week, as we know, is a popular time to get married in China. We saw one couple having photos taken on the beach. What better place than next to the women working on the fishing nets? The bride is the gal in pink. I just missed getting a shot of her sitting in the sand posing. The photographer is in the center of the picture in the pink shirt and the groom is in green sitting on the sand, partially hidden by the woman with the nets. I understand wanting the water as a backdrop, but this was a place crowded with fishing boats. There was lots of open beach available, but they chose this spot. Later I saw the same couple, bride in a white wedding dress and groom in a suit this time, standing with the pigeons. Someone scared the pigeons so the photographer could get a shot of them surrounded by flying birds.
We saw the boats coming in so headed back to that section of the beach. The brother-in-law certainly knew what he was talking about. What an interesting experience watching all these boats come in and unload their catches. They start their day about 3 or 4 a.m. and come back to shore about 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. The buyers know this and were ready and waiting. Lots of sorting, weighing, haggling and buying going on. My friend and I were clearly out of our league. Every time she or I asked about buying crabs the price quoted was 20 yuan a jin. Her brother-in-law insisted we could get a better price so we stood back and let him deal with it. Finally, about 45 minutes later, he found good crabs at a price he was satisfied with. I got 9 crabs for 20 yuan - about half what I would have paid without his help. I offered to buy him some for his family's dinner, but, "That's not necessary."
Bringing in the day's catch:
How do you choose?
Of course, we finished our day with a crab feast. Life here is good:
I first saw this creature through a camera lens and thought it was a hummingbird. It was quite a bit larger than the other butterflies that were fluttering over the flowers, and there were several of them zooming about and drinking nectar. I finally decided it must be a moth, because of its antenna and its really long proboscis, but it wouldn't cooperate and stay still for me to get a good look. Does this look familiar to any one? I'd appreciate being educated.
Our area of China does not get the gorgeous fall leaf colors of Ontario or the northeastern USA. We seem to go from green to brown; I miss the colors. These are the only colorful leaves we saw:
The park kept our attention for about an hour. After much discussion about what to do next, we decided to head for the beach near my friend's sister's home. This beach is the nicest in the area and is between Huludao and Xingcheng. On the way we spied a small park with a waterfall, so had the cab driver stop and let us out. (He only charged us half the fare quoted because we didn't get all the way to the beach.) What a delightful find. The pond, rocks and waterfall are all manmade, but that doesn't take away from the beauty that this oasis provides on the corner of a rather busy city block.
If you are so inclined, bring your chess pieces and have a game of Chinese chess in this idyllic setting:
We climbed to the top of the waterfall and discovered a paved walkway that led off into the distance. People we met said that after some time we would find a gazebo so we kept walking, and walking, and walking...until we hit a dead end at a navy base, where I'm not allowed to go. I was afraid to take a picture of the gate, just in case they confiscated my camera. Nevertheless, across the road was another hideaway park, with the promised gazebo.
We spent some time resting in this peaceful and secluded place (no one else in sight) and then headed on down the road to the beach. It was quite a distance and I was tired, so we hopped on a bus to finish the journey. At the beach I spied the fishing boats in the distance and got the brilliant idea to buy some crabs for my darling husband who was slaving away on English grammar lesson plans at home. One fellow had some large crabs, but they were dead. Another lady had some that were alive, but they were small and the price seemed a little high - but what do we know? What are cell phones for? My friend called her sister to ask what a fair price is. She was told to absolutely NOT buy the dead ones. I kinda knew that was a bad idea. My friend's brother-in-law works at the beach. His business is hauling the fishing boats out of the water on a train track sort of setup. Her sister called him and down the beach he came to find us. His advice was to wait an hour until the fishing boats came in, so we could get fresh ones for a good price. He went back to his business and we went back to the tourist area for a drink and snack, and a rest in the shade.
October Week, as we know, is a popular time to get married in China. We saw one couple having photos taken on the beach. What better place than next to the women working on the fishing nets? The bride is the gal in pink. I just missed getting a shot of her sitting in the sand posing. The photographer is in the center of the picture in the pink shirt and the groom is in green sitting on the sand, partially hidden by the woman with the nets. I understand wanting the water as a backdrop, but this was a place crowded with fishing boats. There was lots of open beach available, but they chose this spot. Later I saw the same couple, bride in a white wedding dress and groom in a suit this time, standing with the pigeons. Someone scared the pigeons so the photographer could get a shot of them surrounded by flying birds.
We saw the boats coming in so headed back to that section of the beach. The brother-in-law certainly knew what he was talking about. What an interesting experience watching all these boats come in and unload their catches. They start their day about 3 or 4 a.m. and come back to shore about 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. The buyers know this and were ready and waiting. Lots of sorting, weighing, haggling and buying going on. My friend and I were clearly out of our league. Every time she or I asked about buying crabs the price quoted was 20 yuan a jin. Her brother-in-law insisted we could get a better price so we stood back and let him deal with it. Finally, about 45 minutes later, he found good crabs at a price he was satisfied with. I got 9 crabs for 20 yuan - about half what I would have paid without his help. I offered to buy him some for his family's dinner, but, "That's not necessary."
Bringing in the day's catch:
How do you choose?
Of course, we finished our day with a crab feast. Life here is good:
