24th September 2011 (19th day)

24^th September 2011 (19^th day)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLINTON TAN! :D

The first destination is to the East Lake at the east part of Wuchang and it is the largest open space in Wuhan and it’s six times the size of Hangzhou’s West Lake. There are over 372 different types of plants and 8 species of bird and fish there.

(VIDEO)

Inside the Tram!

We took a tram which arranged by the school to tour around the place and the first stop is at the Xu Yuan statue. He is the person who died and people commemorate the day as dumpling day and the story is they people fear there will be fishes that eat up his body, so they threw dumplings down and hopefully he can survive.

The next stop is at the bird statue place and took pictures of it.  And next will be the Qinghe bridge and we walk back to the meeting place.

After this, we went to Hubei Provincial Museum which is located by the lakeshore of East Lake in Wuchang. It is also counted as the most cultural relics in Hubei Province. Inside it contains many historical treasures.

I visited the Exhibition of fine Artistic Collection Of Porcelain, Tomb of Marquis of Zeng and The Art of Lacquered Articles in the Qin and Han dynasties.  

 Exhibition of fine Artistic Collection Of Porcelain
I have always thought that Porcelain is always for the older generation to appreciate and I don't fancy them anyway and what is so special about it anyway? But after entering and reading what is it about, I feel like these porcelain are very special because they came from a rich background. And they are not just porcelain baking over 1200 Degree Celsius and glazing. But they have been also become a symbolic ancient of China.

I have understood that these porcelain found since archaeologists in Hubei have excavated a number of tombs in the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Six dynaties period in the Ezhou and East of Liangzi Lake, and hundreds of Sui and Tang tombs in Wuchang, Wuhan.

And celadon was unearthed from tomb and  discovering many sites of kilns producing white greenish porcelain !

Some Celadon are shown below :

We also managed to see White Porcelain which is a traditional type in China, has low iron content and glaze body-like. They are also frequently found in Tang and Song tombs.

One of the picture I have took of greenish white Porcelian is in a chess piece form. As I always thought that pottery is always has a standard vase shape and not other shape, so i find it special too!

There are also Yuan Blue and White Porcelain and many unearthed from the tomb of Prince Yingjing of the Ming Dynasty at Zhongxiang which is excavated recently at 2006!

Of course, there are many others type of Porcelain that I have saw and find them beautiful !

Look how the handwriting changed from last time till now.

 Tomb of Marquis of Zeng

Going to this Tomb of Marquis of Zeng, I learned much more about the history. As this tomb is located at Leigudun in the suburbs of Sui Country in Hubei, and was excavated in 1978. It is the timb of a feudal Kinburied 2,400 years ago. More than 15,000 artifacts were unearthed, including rityal vessels, musical instruments, lacquered articles, gold wares, jade wares, weapons, chariot part, harnesses and bamboo slips. 

Bronze zun with it's matching tray!
 There are total 13 wine vessels being unearthed and 4 of them are Bronze zun with it's matching tray!

Putting of Clothes Box

This is how the arrows looks like in close look!

Ha, how amazed that I can see it in real life but no in Television shows!

& LASTLY! THIS IS INTERESTING! :D

These are Burial Jades mean burial wares buried with the body to preserve it which is found at the main occupant's mouth and skull. And those found in Marquis Yi tomb is pig, dog, ox, sheep, duck and fish shape, They are small in shape like bean and made by round cutting.

I saw the Bian Zhong and we even went for the performance which cost 10RMB which is called Chime Bells which is an ancient Chinese musical instrument consisting of a set of bronze bells hung in a wooden frame and stuck with a mallet.

I also saw the sword of Goujian, the King of ancient Yue Kingdom, and the spear of Fuchai, the King of ancient Wu Kingdom are especially precious treasures.

After the museum, we went to Hu Bu Xiang for lunch!

Today I tried some food that I have not tried when I’m there during the first round. Such as:

1. 汤包 10RMB for 10 pieces, costing $0.20 each and in Singapore it’s $1 each. And the improvement to it is if there’s more soup inside. This delicious and reasonable price makes me want to try their restaurant type, perhaps it will be tastier and I have ever tried the real nice one over at China, ShangHai.

2.  Fried Ice cream, which is rarely found in Singapore and heard about it when I’m young. Which cost 12RMB for 2 boxes, $1.20 per box?

3. Mushroom Plum Buns for 3RMB, which I regretted getting it because the taste is really weird and it feels marshy inside. Therefore I spit it out after biting it.

4. Beef Biscuit at 5RMB, $1.

5. Lamb Satay, 4 sticks for 10RMB, $2.

6. Bean curd at 2.5RMB, $0.50 and Soya drink at 2RMB, $0.40

7. Another stall of Fried Ice Cream at 6RMB

8. Beef Meat Ball

Uncle doing Honey Arts Sweet

And I bought my chopsticks as souvenir for my family and friends, as my friends get some traditional making honey sweets.

Next destination will be going to Yellow crane tower which is initially built around 220 AD and Mao is said to have ascended the tower in 1927 to view the Yangtze River. There is two legends related to Yellow Crane Towwer and the first is the Immortal named Wang Zi’an rode off on a yellow crane from Snake Mountain. A tower was later built in commemoration. In the second, after becoming an immortal, Fei Wenyi would ride a yellow crane and often stop on Snake Hill to take a rest.

There are also famous poem writer as the picture shown. And one of the famous poem is by Li Bai called “"Seeing off Meng Haoran for Guangling at Yellow Crane Tower" (黄鹤楼送孟浩然之广陵). The original poem is shown below:

故人西辞黄鹤楼，
烟花三月下扬州。
孤帆远影碧空尽，
唯见长江天际流

My old friends said goodbye to the west, here at Yellow Crane Tower,
In the third month's cloud of willow blossoms, he's going down to Yangzhou.
The lonely sail is a distant shadow, on the edge of a blue emptiness,
All I see is the Yangtze River flow to the far horizon.

View to the east from the Yellow Crane Tower. The eastern part of the Snake Hill is in the middle; the red-brick compound of the Wuchang Uprising memorial is to the right of it

View to the west with Tortoise Hill and beyond, the Tortoise Mountain TV Tower

This modern Qing style Tower is a reproduction of a Temple that was originally situated 1km from the present location destroyed by fire in 1884. Despite the fact that this is not an important historical relic, many poets and artists over the years have reportedly found inspiration in this impressive monument.

The Tower is 50 meters high with five stories stretching upwards from the ground. And inside the tower, on every level there’s sometime different inside. Such as the 2nd level have,

 Flowers Painting

 Flowers Painting





3rd level have,

(This shows how the Yellow Crane Tower were being re-built several times!)

^4th level have,

Famous immortal

Fan Painter

Rice inserted through the necklace and wear, This is rarely found in Singapore anymore as it was once on trend when I was in the secondary school.

5^th level have,

The roof of the structure is covered with thousands of tiny tiles glazed in gold. Frescos decorate the walls and the entire construction is hung together with red auspicious columns. 

And after this, we went to the bell there and take pictures too before setting off and go to the next destination.

The last destination is the place which looks like Singapore’s marina bay where the place to relax and fly kites. And there is nice scenery around and it is a breath-taking place to enjoy with family and friends during free time. It is a good place besides just seeing temples and museum, therefore we should be given more time as we delayed just now, if not we could have play with kites already!

We played with blowing bubbles!

After that, the bus driver send us back home by the dark alley path to avoid jams in the district because around 7pm is the peak hour whereby businessman leaves work and head home. Which is around the same timing in Singapore too, and transportation back home is a hassle already.

HOME SWEET HOME! :D