8th day in China, current location is Hangzhou. Special day today.

It's Christmas!!

So let me thank those people who wished me merry Christmas. In Chronological Order : Huimin, Raymond, Raymond's bro, Xinying, Hafizah, Jasmine Ang, Nicole, Peishan, Meiqi, Xiao Qian, David, Kuan Hui, Haikal, Syamil, Tse Ruey, Janice, Hazel, Yi Qi, Keng Hwee, Kai Yan, Ruiming, Jia Jun, Wilson, Singtel, Jasmine Tan, some people who crossed my path in China today.

Sorry if I forgot to add you in, I don't have super memory, yet. Well, if you think you should be on top of the list, you have to beat Huimin. She's a pro, her Christmas card reached me on the 15th of December. Wow. Anyway, some people here in China are super friendly too, they'll smile at you, and that smile just makes you wish them merry christmas.

Anyway, my Christmas wish number 1 did come true, I dreamt of returning to Singapore, celebrating Christmas with some people who I could remember, namely Wilson, Thomas, Xinying, Ruiming, Ivan (Yeow), Timothy, Tan Yaw's Parents(???), etc... There are others but I forgot. Well, I'm satisfied enough with this dream, since in reality, I would never get to celebrate today with you guys.

For today, I went to the place called QianDaoHu(QianDao as in Thousand Islands, Hu as in lake). It's a big lake which contains 1078 islands, and covered a total area as big as 108 XiHu's(See previous post for information). Covering around 700kilometres square of area, it's a bit bigger than Singapore. It took a 2 hour coach ride from our hotel to the port at the lake.

What's marvellous about this lake is that the water is immediately drinkable in some areas. Another is that it completely submerges a village of the past, and 2 ancient cities. Though we did not submerge to view it, it's still a nice thought to find a Chinese Atlantis.

The boat set off for the first island, called the Lock Island, or ShuoDao. At the port of the island, there is a giant lock 9 feet high and 9kg heavy. Also on the Island are many different ancient locks, including the worlds biggest operational lock and the smallest, which is almost hairline size. I wanted to buy a lock, but did not manage to head back to get one in time.

Moved on to the next island via a bridge, the bridge is actually a Koi Farm. I paid RMB to get 2 packets of fish food to feed the Koi, a marvellour sight since they all swarmed to the food and almost threw each other out of the water. I tried feeding in 2 different ponds, one in the bigger Koi and the other in a smaller Koi area. Both contain extraordinary numbers of Koi.

Moving on, went to the second island called Bird Island, or NiaoDao. Inside we went true a natural bird park, with mawcaws who won't miss a chance to take photos with you. There's doves, peacocks, falcons, eagles, owls and what else other than the parrot. Talking birds always excites the audience, but I'm bored of those. However, one parrot did one unexpectedly thing. It laughed!! Sounds like a sarcastic laugh when someone else got into a comical and also troublesome situation. Quite cool.

Moving on, we took a small boat, rowing to the next island which had nothing more than a playground. On the boatride, I tasted my first gulp of the freshwater in the lake. It's terrifying clearwater, and tastes exactly like spring water, if not, better. Surprised that there's such a place where you can just scoop water and drink. Reached the shores of the third island and skipped stones. I did a 3 skip, the maximum of the day amongst my brothers. Moved on to the port and also the bridge to the fourth island. Connecting the two islands is a bridge called the ZhuangYuanQiao(ZhuangYuan as in scholars, Qiao as in Bridge). You rock the bridge from side to side, signifying an extension to your health, knowledge and also capability. Me and my brothers rocked the bridge from one end to the other, and reached the 4th island called Rock Island, or ShiDao. It contained the ancient precious stones, which we don't have time to view. We then rocked the bridge on our way back to the port on the 3rd island, had our lunch onboard while setting off to the 5th island, called Dragon Island, or LongDao.

On LongDao, saw nothing much, bored to type out, so I'll skip this part. Got back onto the main shore and took the bus back to our hotel. On our way, we stopped at a village called MeiHuaChun(Mei as in Plum, Hua as in Flower(with a mu4 zhi4 pang2, Chun as in village). The place where China's Number One tea is planted and made, XiHuLongJingCha(XiHu as in West Lake, LongJing as in Dragon Well, Cha as in Tea). I've been there 2 years ago, so won't elaborate on this place. Then we set off to a silk factory again, the second of this trip, the other in Suzhou. Also heard explanation of silk for the third time, can't be more bored.

Returned to have dinner in some place like Kopitiam in Singapore, but the food is super nice. Surely better than Singapore's. The place is called ZhiWeiGuan(Zhi as in Know(ZhiDao), Wei as in taste(WeiDao), Guan3(forgot how to describe in english). Eat there if you ever go to Hangzhou.

Bought Hangzhou's TeChan(as in Special Product) for 2 of you. I won't say who yet, so don't even think about this. Walked back to the hotel by the XiHu, for the second time. Yesterday there are alot of couples, making feel abit, yah. Tonight it's the same. There's a grand total of 87 couples I've passed by today walking back via XiHu. Not counting one guy who was hand in hand with 2 girls, and groups. I hereby proclaim XiHu as an unofficial romance spot.

Tired. Merry Christmas again. See ya next time, I'm returning to Changzhou via train tomorrow afternoon. And staying there until New Year's Day.