China Trip - Day 4

DAY 4

After a nice sleep in the "Tao Yuan" hotel, me and my friends wake up and plans to eat the wanton noodle in "Mei Zhi Jie" again. But this time, we found out that there're many people, including my boss and his family were there. They came because yesterday we were in the bus yesterday, talking about the wanton noodle that we ate yesterday.

Today's wanton noodle isn't much delicious compare to the wanton noodle that I ate yesterday, because we ate at another stall, which I called the stall number 3. Yesterday we ate at stall number 2. We didn't try for the stall number 1, because we can't figure what they're selling. After we finished our breakfast, I walked around the hotel, this time I walked even further, I walked to the back streets of the hotel, I found a restaurant which selling porridge. I told my friend, Chong, if yesterday I went to the back streets, we may ate our breakfast at the porridge restaurant.

On 8.40am, we start our journey to Fu Zhou. On the journey, we stop by to my boss friend, which we met yesterday in the village. He's Uncle Tan, he's a Mandarin Orange distributor to our country, Malaysia. We went to his storage house (we're still in Yong Chun), and at the same time, there's fireworks at the opposite village from where we're standing on that moment. The fireworks aren't obvious, because it's daytime.

Picture 4.1 - The front view of the storage house.

Picture 4.2 - Me and Uncle Tan's daughter, Xia Lan

Picture 4.3 - A bunch of Mandarin Orange

On 9.40am we continued our journey, on 1.20pm we finally reach to Fu Zhou. We stop by to a restaurant for lunch. I don't know what's the name of the restaurant, but picture 4.4 will show the front view of the restaurant. The food of this restaurant is delicious, I can say that on this four days of travelling, this is the restaurant where we had our most delicious food. There're two dishes that I loved it very much, first is the cabbage fried with dried chilli which totally suit my taste, and second is the boiled chicken soup in clay pot. Besides that, we also had a bowl of soup which filled with many types of mushrooms, and it tastes almost like Campbell Soup.

Picture 4.4 - Front view of the restaurant.

On 2.35pm, we finished our lunch start heading to Gu Shan. It tooks about 50 minutes to reach there. Gu Shan is a hill which had the height of 1.8km from the sea level. At the top of the hill, we can view the scenery of the Fu Zhou. Because it's so high, we plan to use cable car to reach to the top. Because we had a compact schedule, we just reach to the top and walk around. Before we start going back, we went to a stall to fill our stomach. I ordered a bowl of noodles with peanuts gravy and a bowl of Fu Zhou fish balls, these dishes are the local favourite.

Picture 4.5 - Me in front of the Gu Shan entrance.

Picture 4.6 - Entrance of the cable car to the top of Gu Shan.

Picture 4.7 - The walkway around the Gu Shan.

Picture 4.8 - The back view of my seat while we're going up.

Picture 4.9 - (Wow) A long way to go.

Picture 4.10 - The end of the cable car, total got 24 columns.

Picture 4.11 - The view of Fu Zhou 1.

Picture 4.12 - The view of Fu Zhou 2.

Picture 4.13 - This is where I took picture 4.11 and 4.12.

Picture 4.14 - Me in Gu Shan.

Picture 4.15 - The noodles with peanuts gravy.

On 5.30pm, we start heading to a hotel called Fu Zhou Hotel for rest. So once we reach to hotel, we took our bath, hanging around, snap some photos and chat with our boss. On 8.00pm we start heading to "Jian Ping Gong Yuan". Before we reach to "Jian Ping Gong Yuan", we went to a place where we can see many decorations (I couldn't recall that is the name of the place, but I knew there's Mao Zhe Tong's statue opposite the place). As we walked to the destination, I found out that there's some speciality on Fu Zhou, there're many pedestrian cross on the road, especially on the cross roads, and their traffic light are quite special, three colours (red, yellow and green) shown in a same box.

Picture 4.16 - The Fu Zhou Hotel.

Picture 4.17 - A special pedestrian cross with special traffic light.

Picture 4.18 - A statue in front of the building.

Picture 4.19 - Statue of Mao Zhe Tong.

Picture 4.20 - The "Jian Ping Gong Yuan"

After we walked around "Jian Ping Gong Yuan", we plan to take our dinner at a restaurant called "Lao Fu Zhou" which located on other place. While we're waiting for a taxi, there's a fireworks activity occur in front of us, I also managed to record a video how and what did we saw on that moment.

Video 4.1 - What had we enjoyed while we waiting for a taxi.

Picture 4.21 - Restaurant Lao Fu Zhou.

On restaurant Lao Fu Zhou, we ordered many things, like Fu Zhou fishballs, Mala Toufu, noodle soup and fried noodle. The food looks pretty, but many of us said the food is in "ok" condition, means that those food aren't delicious enough to entertain us. So, at 11.00pm, me, my boss, ZY, Ah Chong and Johnson (one of my boss stuff, but different company) went for supper (BBQ) and have some beer (Sorry, no photos taken). The best part that I felt during the supper is, my boss really looks like our friend rather than our boss, he actually loves to talk many about his experience to us and loves to joke around (really not like what I saw during work). During our supper, we ordered many beers, we drank many but no one was drunk, even me. During the supper, I found out that our beer in Malaysia, the taste are much stronger compare to the beer which we took on China. China beer feels like water plus a little bit of malt taste. I don't know why, I never drank so many beer in my whole life without getting drunk.

On 12.20am, we start heading back to hotel and have some sleep.

China Trip - Day 3

DAY 3

After a good night sleep in the hotel, I woke up 7.00am in the morning, but still my co-workers and my friend still haven't wake up. So I decided to go outside of the hotel and walk around the place.

Picture 3.1 - The front view of the hotel.

Picture 3.2 - Front view of "Mei Shi Jie"

Picture 3.3 - The food stalls at the side of the Mei Shi Jie

Mei Shi Jie is a streets which we can find lots of foods. Because we went to China in the Chinese New Year festive seasons, there're not much stall open for business. As I walk though the street, there's only 2 stalls are open, all of them are selling noodles.

As I walk to another streets, I found out that there're many motorcycle-taxi around that area. Feeling kinda weird, this was the first time I saw motorcycle can be used as a taxi. As I was showing my curiosity eyes on them, they came approach me, and ask me whether I need their service or not, it was quite scary as many of them (2 to 3 persons) can approach at the same time. I just quick walk back to the hotel with my hands shaking (showing that I don't want their service).

On 8.30am, me, zy and Ah Chong went down and walk around the streets again. This time I take them to the Mei Shi Jie for breakfast, we went to a stall which cooks wanton noodle. The price are cheap, RMB 3, 4 or 5 (Convert to Malaysia currency which is about RM 1.50, 2.00 and 2.50). Besides wanton noodle, we also ordered a bowl of dumpling soup.

Picture 3.4 - The stall which we went for wanton noodle.

Picture 3.5 - The wanton noodle.

To me in China, the noodles are really delicious and special, compare to the noodles in Malaysia. In China, the wanton noodles are totally different, they're mainly in soup base and they doesn't have noodles with black caramel sauce. Besides that their noodle are fully man made, not like ours in Malaysia are machine made.

On 8.50am, we start moving from the hotel to my boss's ancestors village, which also located at Yong Chun. It almost take about an hour to reach to the village. The village is located at the hill, when we reach there, it's very cold (Higher elevation tend to have colder temperature, for example, KL and Genting Highlands). When I step down from the vehicle, I can feel like I'm a total different place, a very peaceful place that I never been before, a place with no traffic jams, non-polluted air and no congested areas.

Picture 3.6 - A simple view of the village.

Video 3.1 - A view around the village.

After we took some pictures around the village, my boss invite us to a small house, where all the ancestors plate are placed. Inside the house, they start their ritual, I don't know what kind of ritual, but I think it's a ritual that used to pray to their ancestors. Beside the on-going ritual, many people are also taking breakfast at the same time. At that moment, my stomach is still full, but the dishes looks delicious, so without hesitation, I eat them all.

Picture 3.7 - The food in front of me.

My stomach was totally full, I can't eat any more, so I have some rest. But once I stand up and start going from that house, some aunty told me, there will having lunch soon, which in an hour. At that time, I really wish that I didn't take so much of food. As soon I walked out from the house, me and my friend ZY walked around the village and snap some photos again.

Picture 3.8 - Me in the village.

Picture 3.9 - A Mandarin Orange Tree.

Picture 3.10 - A view which taken from higher spot, which shows the building around the village.

After an hour, I backed to the house for lunch (another meal again = =, haih....). I seated on the chair and waited for the food to come. After the first dish, Chong came with two cups of white wine, and asked me and ZY to drink. At the moment my stomach really not that feeling well, overload and started got some feeling like want to vomit. There're total 18 dishes as been told by the folks around the village, and all the villagers are going to have lunch together. In those 18 dishes, one of them are O-mee-sua. Finally my favourite food arrive, but sadly my stomach are full. Since I can't take any food any more, I went out and walk around the village again, but this time, I walked further from my boss, because I was scared to let him called back and go drink that white wine.

Picture 3.11 - The Delicious O-mee-sua (But it has dried up).

Picture 3.12 - The cook which cooks our lunch.

Picture 3.13 - This is how they prepare the dishes in front of the house.

Picture 3.14 - The only "red leaf" tree that I found in the village.

Picture 3.15 - One of the view around the village.

Picture 3.16 - The paddy field in the village.

Picture 3.17 - Me in the village.

Picture 3.18 - A side view of the paddy field.

From 1.40pm till 4.00pm I at outside walking around the village, sat on roadside with my cold hands in my pocket, enjoy the view with some fresh air, finally I step back into the house for some rest. I found a place where I can finally to have some nap, then after an hour, suddenly someone pull me and wake me up, is was my boss, in his drunk form. He pulled me to sit beside him, and asked me to drink with him, luckily I was lucky to ran away when my boss was talking with the villagers.

At 6.00pm, we start to have our dinner, even I'm still full. After dinner, we had our very own fireworks session. The fireworks are really wonderful, they just release it in front of the house, just a few meters away from me, on that time, I video some of the fireworks activity, right below the fireworks. On 7.45pm, we start heading back to our hotel and have some rest.

Video 3.2 - One of the fireworks that I enjoyed during that night.

China Trip - Day 2

Day 2

After about 14 hours of journey from Guang Dong to Fu Jian, Quan Zhou, finally we reached to a Taiwan style restaurant at 7.45am. The service from the restaurant is quite bad, they doesn't serve their customer accordingly; just simply serve, just send the dishes to the table which they got order, not serve according to "who comes who first". Still, they also didn't know how much dishes that has been served, because they didn't record it. So, overall the management is bad.

Picture 2.1 - Me in front of the Taiwanese style restaurant.

The temperature in the morning was very low, is almost about 5 celcius degree. I couldn't take this such cold temperature, so I wore one more sweater. After our breakfast, we took some photos around the restaurant and then straight to the bus for our next journey. The next journey that we're going is the "Guan Ti" Temple. Guan Ti is the Guang Gong (A warrior in the Three Kingdoms, where his skins are red in colour) which has been granted the King position.

Picture 2.2 - Me in front of Guan Ti Temple.

Picture 2.3 - Front View of Guan Ti Temple.

On 9.45am, we went to a temple which had more than 1000 years of history. The name of the temple is Kai Yuan Shi (Note: Kuan Ti Temple and Kai Yuan Shi are located at Quan Zhou). Initially when I reach to the front door of the temple, I thought that the temple was small and quite old. The main door are a small temple with the Four Guardians of Heaven inside, The structure is mainly with wood and stone and the structure doesn't require any nails to build. Below shows some photos that I'd taken in front of the Kai Yuan main door.

Picture 2.4 - The front road of the Kai Yuan Shi main entrance.

Picture 2.5 - Inside the Kai Yuan Temple's main entrance.

Once the whole group starts to walk to the back door of the simple small temple, I found out that the real Kai Yuan Shi was actually at behind of this temple, the area was really big and there's two tall pagoda tower on the left and the right of the area. A special things that we could find in Kai Yuan Temple are the architecture of the structure. The pagoda are made of stones which had been crafted initially then place on top of each stone one by one. Beside the pagoda, the roof of the temple are build mainly with wood, and how they joint the woods are certainly magnificent, different dynasty will have different type of roof combination, which also have different meaning depend on the type of the roof.

Picture 2.6 - Front view of Kai Yuan Temple.

Picture 2.7 - The side road to the Kai Yuan Temple.

Picture 2.8 - The temple, with many Buddha inside.

Picture 2.9 - Me and the pagoda.

Picture 2.10 - The entrance of the pagoda.

Picture 2.11 - "Kai Yuan Shi".

Picture 2.12 - The map for Kai Yuan Temple.

Once we finished our visit in Kai Yuan Temple, we straight away go to the Qing Yuan Shan to visit the statue of the Lao Zi.

Picture 2.13 - The front view of the Qing Yuan Shan entrance.

Picture 2.14 - Me and Lao Zi on the right.

Picture 2.15 - Lao Zi and Confucius, and me the silly guy.

Picture 2.16 - The statue of Lao Zi.

At about 12.00pm, we went to the museum called "Quan Zhou Bou Wu Guan" (= Quan Zhou Museum). In this museum, I can learn a bit historical things in Quan Zhou (because I don't know Chinese language :( ). In the museum I saw an antique coin named "one with broad sword beat five thousand soldiers" (= yi tao ping wu qian), you should come and check it out. Besides that I also learned that there's an invention by Chinese named Hydro-Driven Astronomical Instrument Station which used to observed the sun, moon and stars which later on 19th century the Western used this hydro-techs to create a seated clock.

Picture 2.17 - Front view of the Quan Zhou Museum.

Picture 2.18 - A structure that looks like the top of the Hydro-Driven Astronomical Instrument Station located in front of the museum.

After an house of museum visit, we went to a restaurant located next to a museum, which I will go later on. After lunch, we continue our journey to the next museum called "Zhong Guo Min Tai Yuan Bou Wu Kuan". There's nothing much that excited me during this visit, except one thing, an art presented in the entrance of the museum, picture 2.21 till picture 2.23 shows something which had shock me so much.

Picture 2.19 - The restaurant that we went for lunch.

Picture 2.20 - The "Zhong Guo Min Tai Yuan Bou Wu Kuan"

Picture 2.21, 2.22 and 2.23 - An tree portrait with Chinese poem disappear and then reappear.

In the beginning, when I first saw this three story height portrait, I took the first picture. Later I felt that I should take another one or two to compare which is the best to put in the blog. Then when I view my pictures, I then found out that the Chinese words are slowing fade away and then slowly reappear. The way they do it is by the light with Chinese word pattern flash to the back of the portrait.

On 3.00pm, we start heading to a hotel named "Tow Yuan" which located at Yong Chun. The journey to Yong Chun from Quan Zhou are about 2 hours by bus. When we reached to the hotel, we straight to our rooms and have some rest. (The picture for the hotel will be post on the next post)

On 7.18pm, after we had enough rest, we start moving to a village, where all the villagers surname are the same; Tan (Chan in cantonese, Chen in mandarin and Chin in hakka). In about 20 minutes of travelling by van, we finally reach to a simple house, which really does have some ancient Chinese house environment. When we reached to the front of the house, we're being ushered to go into the house by Mr. Tan, which is my boss friend. The house is small, but it really can fit about 32 people. We had our dinner in the house, one thing which really shocked my during that time, in this such a small house, they can prepare such a large amount of food for all of us, and we all can't finish all. Let us talk about the dishes, there's one bowl of duck soup, which really taste the same as bak kut teh in klang, but isn't 100% the same the same, as we in klang are using pork and they're using duck. In this night, i finally for the first time having a noodle for a meal, the house owner had prepare a big bowl of mee sua called "o mee sua" which really tasted magnificent.

Picture 2.24 - A table full of dishes in Mr. Tan's house.

Picture 2.25 - A bowl of duck soup which taste like bak kut teh.

Picture 2.26 - The front door of the house, total different with the doors in Malaysia.

Picture 2.27 - The front view of the house.

On 10.25pm we start heading back to hotel and prepare for tomorrow (day 3) journey.

***

Kai Yuan Shi = 开元寺

Lao Zi = 老子

Yong Chun = 永春