Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Leaning Tower of Lianzhou

The two cousins accompanied me to Lianzhou and we stayed with their older sister. The evening of the first day we ate snacks by the river. This was where I tried a snail, which is a local specialty. I ate one, and it was ok, but sucking on the snail and biting off the head to eat seemed more disturbing than the idea of eating snail in the first place, so I didn't try it again, but at least I tried it once.

The second famous attraction in Lianzhou is the leaning tower. It seems to have been built with some kind of Buddhism in mind, but the exact reason is not completely clear. It leans slightly because of a problem with the foundation years after it was built.

At the top levels the stairways and passages get shorter and narrower, but high on the top-most level there is one of the best views of the city.


After returning from Lianzhou to Guangzhou, I stayed for two nights with Cousin James, who has an apartment there. We had dinner with his girlfriend on both nights and we spent Monday looking around the city, where I bought an English book for the trip back to the US, and we had the best foot massage ever for 40 RMB.

I took the early bus today, back to Shantou where I had to start again with bartering for a cab after just stepping off the bus. Now I'm at my apartment and getting ready for the inspection and check-out procedure tomorrow before flying home on Thursday!!

-吴佩芙

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Always good to try something at least once. I remember eating frog legs for the first time. Not sure I would do it now. Better to do things when you are young. I am trying motorcycle riding and will ride my own motorcycle tomorrow for the first time. Going to Des Moines to pick it up and bring it home in the evening. Then I can take a spin around the neighborhood before midnight. Traffic should be pretty slow at that time but I have never ridden at night yet. So many firsts, so little time.
MJinCR