I went on a tour of some of the surrounding places in Zhongshan. The organization that put on the event is Friends of Foreigners, so if you are not Chinese they provide everything for free. We started of the day with a look at a giant statue of Mr. Zhongshan himself. He over looks the city from the south and has quite a monument built for him. This was the meeting place for all of the “foreigners.” CHES had five people besides me, Helen, Femke, Sven, Bob and Jerry. Helen is the one from Scotland, Femke and Sven are Dutch, Bob is another American and Jerry is English. A few other schools had teachers there (Bond even made there teachers wear matching shirts, we called them the clones), but then there were a lot of business men as well. We really did have a group from all over the world. All of them were very friendly and it made for a great day. The theme of the day was Zhongshan through the eyes of foreigners, so our objective was to take a lot of pictures and there is a photo competition that last for a few weeks. They want to make a brochure and our pictures would be in it. What was funny was that there were a lot of amateur photographers there taking pictures of us taking pictures. I have never been so photographed in my life. So if you are ever in Zhongshan you might just see me on a brochure.
After we all met and got out pictures of Mr. Zhongshan we headed to Xiolan and had a boat tour down one of the canals. We were served tea on the boat. All of the locals came out and waved at us as we rode down the canals in our boats. It was like we were the main attraction for the day, instead of us being entertained we were the entertainment.
The next stop was a old square in Xiolan where we saw a Lion Dance and calligraphy. The lion dance was very impressive. Two guys wear a lion costume and made the lion dance. They were so animated and really gave life to the costume. What made it even more impressive was when they jumped on these poles about 5-6 ft off the ground and made the lion dance while hoping from pole to pole. The calligraphy was nice to see, but other wise not a lot to say about it.
Lunch was in a typical Chinese lunch. About 8 dishes placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and everyone shares.
After lunch I think the bus drivers got lost, because they made a few u-turns and were on the bus much longer than our itinerary said we should have been, but we eventually made it to the “ancient” city. This was somewhat disappointing, because it was just a few temples and not really a village. Our tour guide did tell us that the sea came up to that part of Zhongshan, so that was interesting to know.
The last stop of the day was a Buddhist temple. Again very interesting to see, but not a lot to say about it. The monks were going through their evening chants and rituals for us to see, but it really felt like we were invading on their personal lives and in the way. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, because it just didn’t seem right. Me and Femke did find a fly that was deep in meditation hanging to the branch of a willow tree, though.
Of all the people that I’ve met I think Femke and Sven are my favorite to be around. Helen is also a great addition to the group. Its interesting, because the Chinese automatically associate Femke and Sven as brother and sister because they are both tall and from Holland, but when you get to know them they are very different. Femke is really funny and jokes around a lot. She enjoys life and is carefree. Sven also has a great sense of humor, but when he speaks his English is very proper and when he jokes you are almost not sure if he is really being sarcastic or not. But when you have both of them together there is very rarely a dull moment. I was laughing the entire day!
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