kathDiary: An 11 days tour to China

Day 1 ~ 22/11/2010 Monday

Fuzhou, also named as Rongcheng which means "a city of banyan trees", is the capital of Fujian province.

The first day started with morning call @ 6.30am and breakfast @ 7am.

After which we left the 4star, Fuzhou Hotel (Fuzhou Da Fan Dian) to begin our tour.

Breakfast time.. Buffet tables right behind us.

The coach that provided transportation throughout our trip.

The streets of Fuzhou..

Mount Gu Scenic Area

Mount Gu, Yongquan Temple, is with more than 160 special views around it and more than 700 inscriptions craved into the cliffs, which constitute "Fuzhou Stele Forest". This temple is thus named as the "Best temple in Fujian"

From the side, the root will look like a horse saddle..

Inside is a library which was built in the seventeenth century, it has 12 bookcases donated by 2 emperors of the Qing Dynasty. There are also books written with blood by a monk. According to the Guide, the monk must not eat anything salty nor sweet in order to allow the blood for writing and to be preserved till today. Due to that the monk was actually too weak to write and thus only 3 words were written per day.Therefore he had committed and gave his entire life in writing those books. -- photo-taking not allowed inside.

Next destination, history of Mr. Lin Zexu. He is so famous that a new minor planet was named after him..

He was honored for his pioneering campaign against drug abuse and drug-related crimes.

His illustrious work was crowned by the burning of 1200 tons of opium in June1839 on the beach of Humen in Southern China. As an official in the Qing Dynasty, he is remembered for his achievements in water conservancy from which his native country (Minhou, Fujian Province, China) and other districts in China greatly benefited. -- what a great man.. no wonder a planet can be named after him.. wow..

House of Mr. Lin Zexu..

A classroom like area where he and his cousins came to study together in his house..

After lunch, bored, so took a little self-portal..Heehee..

Proceed to Meizhou Island, we took a boat ride to the Ma Zu Ancestral temple. The sun was super high up in the sky but surprisingly the weather was still cold. When we arrived on the Island, we need to take cable cars up the hill. Note: not the kind of "cable cars" we have in S'pore.. I was actually looking forward to it. However, there was a huge drop of cold sweat when I saw it.. A direct translation from the itinerary given by the tour agency. -.-"