Some more random photos of WuZhen

It seems to take a while for Sha to get up the morning. We're off to see the in-laws today! I doubt that I'll be able to update my blog whilst in Beijing and so ... here are a few more photos of Wuzhen.

I've been collecting some photos of "useful" things in China for people coming to our wedding ceremony - for instance, very exciting photos of plug sockets and useful signs. Any ideas for what would be useful?

(hmmm ... I've just noticed that a photo of Sha climbing the 山 in Hangzhou has found its way into this blog entry - the other photos are from Wuzhen)

Xian

Another amazing day. Sha and I went to the National Time Service Centre in the morning. We were not allowed to see the clocks as they are apparently secret and have something to do with the Chinese GPS and their lunar landing mission.

I gave my talk on pulsar timing and using pulsars to create a time standard. As far as I know, Sha didn't fall asleep during the talk. We then all went out to have a traditional Xi'An lunch. It was great. We had to break some bread into a big bowl and then they filled it up with lamb soup. There were heaps of other side dishes. We also had to keep toasting each other and drinking down lots of extremely good, but very strong alcohol.

After staggering out of the restaurant we had a personalised tour of the Xi'An terracotta warriors. Wow. Seeing hundreds and hundreds of these life-size warriors standing ready to fight is a phenomenal experience. Each person has a different face and the details are incredible. Even the soles of the shoes are carefully reproduced. They must have represented real people of the qin dynasty. Apparently the emperor started the work when he was 13 and it finished when he died 40 or so years later. The museum was wonderful. Particularly as it was so clear that most of the warriors have not been unearthed. They haven't even considered opening the actual tomb of the emperor because they expect rivers of mercury and cross-bows ready to fire at anyone coming close!!

Xi'An is also beautiful. It is surrounded by some wonderful high mountains with spectacular temples on the top.

We then went back to work before having a few games of ping-pong and then going back to the hot-springs! Sha preferred the pool with small fish to the one with large fish :)

We're off to Beijing tomorrow, but I really hope to come back to Xi'An again sometime soon.

Six naked astronomers

This is going to be hard to explain!! This morning Sha and I woke before sunrise to walk around Wuzhen in the peace and quiet. Now I'm writing up my blog in a very posh hotel whilst working my way through the fruit platter. Between the two, we've taken a taxi for hundreds of kilometres, been on the World's fastest train, unsuccessfully hunted for more suitable shoes for me, flown to Xi'An and then, ... err ... hmmm ... ending up with a pair of very tight trunks and a white dressing gown, walking along lantern lit corridors and relaxing in hot pools full of fish. Xiaopeng met me and said "We haven't met for one year, I didn't expect to meet you naked." Well!

The flight was great (although late). We saw a firework display from above! We arrived rather early at Shanghai airport, found somewhere to eat and then decided to find an excuse to take the maglev train. The excuse was to buy me some shoes that are actually suitable for sub-zero temperatures. The maglev is amazing! It reaches 430km/hr and takes just over five minutes to go 30km. Unfortunately it doesn't go anywhere useful. In fact, the place that it takes you to doesn't even have a shoe shop. So we got back on the next train and went back to the airport.

Damn ... the upload speed is basically zero here and so I don't seem to be able to attach any photos. I'll try and get one or two in.

Wuzhen part 2

Well, I did seem to be able to post a blog entry and so I'll try again before I forget the great journey that we just had. We woke this morning to a beautiful, clear sunny day and went for a short walk around the West Lake in Hangzhou. Then we had a bit of a problem. We had to get somehow to Wuzhen, but the route was ridiculously complicated (involving apparently taxi, long-distance bus, bus and then motorbike). That sounded rather fun, but not so fun with two large suitcases. And so, we just hired a taxi. For the price of a trip from Sydney airport to Epping, the driver took us all the way to Wuzhen. It was a great drive through the countryside.

(I can't believe this. Sha has been eating non-stop since arriving in China and now she's working through the hickory nuts and dried beef ... "you can't get this in Sydney")

We had to pull our suitcases for a short walk at the end as cars are not allowed in Wuzhen. In fact, it would be hard to get a car in as you have to go by boat. We then found the house that we're staying in tonight and had the wonderful lunch (whilst watching the boats float pass - one of which was full of cormorants which are trained to catch fish for their owner). Every house has some meet drying outside the windows (Sha got excited by seeing some very dead ducks hanging outside one house).

We saw a buffalo!! :) I also walked across a rickety bamboo bridge! We ate a strange bread-like thing that was cooked on the inside of a huge pot. This really is a wonderful place!

Sha and I have just woken up at 5:30am to go for a quiet walk along the streets. It was very dark! After breakfast we're going to try and work out how to get from here to Xi'An.

Wuzhen

Sha and I are in a wonderful room in an old house. We can hear the sound of the river flowing outside. It's beautiful. We're in Wuzhen in northern Zhejiang Province. The only way to get to the house was by boat! This place is so photogenic. Every corner that we walk around leads to another amazing view. And the food is so good! I think that lunch (of catfish from the river and fried prawns) cooked by the owner of the house was the best meal that I've had in China!

However, the internet is rather terrible. I'll try and post this now and, if it works, write some more details in the next post.

(Our house is in the second photo ... the one in the middle - our room is the one on the top floor!)

An amazing Christmas hike

Merry Christmas everyone. Sha and I have just had a wonderful Christmas in Hangzhou. We even managed to throw some snow at each other! After "breakfast" at Sha's favourite restaurant, we headed off to "Hu Pao" (tiger running). It's amazing!! Hu Pao is a wonderful park on the mountainside where Longjin tea is grown. The tea, which we tried in a small tea-shop on the mountain, is made in water from the local well. Apparently the water "is very dense". They proved this by making a coin float on the water.

We then went to see some huge bamboo and a stone engraving of a monk dreaming of tigers.

Oh gosh, Sha is listening to Beijing opera on the TV.

I discovered today that the 500 buddhas we saw yesterday were actually Arhats (we saw another 500 today!). ----just not professional translate though, if in chinese, I definitely can explain very well!!!!!!---Sha.

We saw a wonderful sign: "Visit aprj incvilzation flrbld climbing". It makes sense, but how did they manage to get that translation?

We then went on our wonderful hike up to the top of the mountain. This involved thousands and thousands of steps, some snow and spectacular views of the tea plants! It was beautiful. It was wonderful! We met a very friendly man at the top who gave us some of his tea (from Yunnan), told us a bit about the area and gave us two oranges.

Then we continued on our way. The whole walk took about four hours. Did I mention that it was wonderful? We saw and heard lots of different types of birds. The most amazing thing about the hike is that we walked for ages without seeing anyone else ... that's rare in China!

In the evening we queued for an hour or so to eat at "Grandma's". We ate heaps of traditional food from the area including Xi Hu Cu Yu - a fish from the West Lake cooked in something nice. We also ate half a bamboo forest.

An amazing Christmas!

(BTW ... the photos are in no order as Sha is trying to grab my computer to skype her mum)

Shanghai to Hangzhou

Why do the Chinese paint the bottom of their trees white? Also why do the Chinese have so many stone lions everywhere when no lions have ever lived in China? Why do all the Buddhist statues look similar to Hindu statues? I think that have decided that I don't understand China at all. However, I successfully asked for "another bottle of beer, please" and so I'm very happy this evening.

Sha is currently watching Chinese TV and eating her way through most of the fruit department at the local supermarket. Apparently the pears that she is now eating are from the Sichuan province. The apples that we just had were from Xanxi province. I'm a bit nervous about what she'll pull out of the shopping bag next. There were large, alive bull frogs sitting in a big bucket.



This morning we checked out of our fancy hotel in Shanghai. I wasn't going to write too much about crazy Chinese signs today, but a sign in the lift in the hotel clearly stated "The right way is to hold one of the hall buttons which is the same direction, up or down, with the running car, or hold Open button in car operation panel. Never allow those who are unable to take the civil responsibility for their behaviours to ride elevators." We took the shuttle bus to the railway station. The train to Hangzhou was spectacular. It only took 50 minutes (and that included one stop). We travelled most of the way at around 350km/hr! The views were great, but odd. The new houses were all trying to follow a European style, but, for some reason, they looked very strange in amongst the Chinese farms.




Immediately after checking-in to our hotel, Sha went bounding out to her favourite restaurant. She had been talking about the duck soup for ages (and how they don't put too many necks in it) and, yes, it was good! We also had amazing xiaolongbao, chicken feet and porridge.




We then went to the Lingyin temple. A Buddhist temple that Sha always goes to when back in China. This temple was built in 326 AD and is one of the ten largest Zen Buddhist temples in China. I have no idea how to describe this visit except to say that it was an incredible experience. Sha burnt lots of incense, said her prayers and gave me a wonderful tour of all the different parts of the temple. I wasn't allowed to take photos within the temple, but the statues were simply phenomenal (and huge). One enormous building contained 500 buddhas, all with different expressions. I didn't really know what to expect in a Buddhist temple, but I certainly didn't expect a basket-ball court!



The scenery just outside of the temple was spectacular. I rather stupidly ran to the top of a mountain whilst Sha waited below. We then inspected the huge rock carvings that were everywhere (including within some dark caves).



We took a bus back into the city and then walked around the lake as it started to get dark. It's a beautiful city!!



Oh, and according to wikipedia "Asiatic lions" were once common in present day Northern India and are believed to be the ones depicted by the stone lions seen everywhere in China!



The instructions in our current hotel tells me that I must not "circulate salacious books".