Kunshan March 27th-31st 2006

Kunshan has a surprising number of fine museums and parks, I think if you compare it to the average American city of it's size, Kunshan it come out ahead. It's also growing like mad, but that's not unusual for southern China right now.

Typical KunShan cityscape, note construction, a very common sight in China today.

Kunshan's Hua Bei Ren Museum

Nina Ollikainen with the sculpture that she created for the Hau Bei Ren Museum.

Paul Hau and Kunshan officials and museum staff with ASACA members. Photo by Wenlin Zhu.

View of the museums second floor,  it is a fantastic facility.

Paul Hau and I posing in front of the dedication plaque.

Kunshan's Rock Museum

Kunshan is the source of one of the famous Chinese ornamental stones that are used in Chinese gardens, I always thought some of the stones in traditional painitings were a bit faked until I saw the real thing!

Kunshan's Nature Park

Kunshan's Tinglin Park

More of the Kunshan rocks on display.

Kunshan is home to a famous style of Chinese opera. This is a reproduction of the original theater as well as a museum.

Kunshan Children's Opera School

We were invited by this school to view a performance. It was quite enjoyable. Mr Hau also gave away some gifts to the children as well as writing some calligraphy.







Traditional scholars studio, larger than mine though not as well equipped!

Tungxi March 31st-April 1st 2006

Xi Di April 1st 2006

Xi Di is one of the historical Chinese water towns, if it looks familar, it is because parts of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed here.

Diane, Victor, Chun Hui, Charlene and Nina at Xi Di in front of the internal lake, it was raining hard intermittently.

Mustard was blooming everywhere.

Hong Cun

Huang Shan April 1st-3rd

April 1st - Cable car going up to Huang Shan.

Left, group shot taken by our guide, left -> right, Diana, Nina, Charlene, Josephine, Theresa, Victor, Jung, Chun Hui, and yours truly. Right,
April 1st - We have to hike several hours to our hotel but the walk is magnificent.

Theresa and Jung in front of one of the many rock carvings that decorate the Yellow Mountains. The pines are unusual here as well to someone from North America. I'm not sure who took the photo.

April 2nd - Hiking around the Yellow Mountains
Staring 2000 feet straight down!

Those with a fear of heights may have some scary moments hiking Huang Shan. Photo by Nina Ollikainen.

It is unusual to be able to see the sunrise at Huang Shan, we really lucked out! Photo by Nina Ollikainen.

When we left, the weather started turning bad, we really lucked out!

Tong Lu

We visited several temples on our way to Hangzhou. One interesting temple was on the river.




Another temple was on the outskirts of Hangzhou.

Fu Yong

Hangzhou April 6th-8th 2006

Theresa and Nina in Westlake Park. I would say the public spaces in Hangzhou are as fine if not finer than most American cities. Hangzhou also has fairly clean air, unusual for a Chinese city. Photo by Jung Lin.

Victor and Diane Chien on the island in Westlake in Hanzhou.

There's a nice island in the middle of Westlake, sadly most of the historic buildings were razed during the cultural  revolution. The restorations are quite well done though.


Fancy cruising boats on the lake are an old tradition.

We also visited an old temple near the lake that is quite lovely.

Shanghai

Left, Shanghai night cruise. Right, one of our more typical activities, feasting! Photos by Nina Ollikainen.

Shanghai nightlife, Shanhai garden. Photos by Nina Ollikainen.