Me and the Physicists go to Jiaxing

On Wednesday we headed out on part two of our trips planned by Joe. In the train station we saw a sign which said, "The great, the glorious and the correct Communist party." Good thing they told me it is correct, otherwise I wouldn't have known.

Riding the train was once again an experience. Jiaxing was less crowded than Souzhou, but still not a pleasant train ride. I didn't really know much about Jiaxing but Danny told me the main thing to see there was a lake and some scenery.

This time we went with Joe, two grad students - Yenfei and Chenxu, and Chenxu's boyfriend. The language barrier was a bit greater on this trip since Yenfei doesn't speak much English and neither did Chenxu's boyfriend.

After an hour on the train we tried to look for a bus or taxi but we didn't see any so we began walking towards the lake. There was a boat ride that ran to an island in the middle but we never ended up buying tickets and instead we wandered around and ended up walking to where the boat trip let you off, by a large pagoda. We all climbed up the seven floors and saw a very pretty view.












Next we decided to head for lunch. I packed a sandwich, being less than thrilled by the prospect of yet another Chinese banquet style meal. We soon discovered that all the restaurants in Jiaxing close at 1:30 and don't reopen until about 4:00. As you might imagine everyone was a bit grouchy and hungry. They all had some snacks and we wondered around the park a bit and saw a few interesting sites. Chenxu entertained herself by blowing bubbles. There were some couples taking wedding photos in really traditional attire and some girls dressed up like anime characters.

Then we headed to the main street in town, called Yue He Jie, which was very cute. Danny kept pointing out it was just the image he had in mind of what little Chinese towns would look like.






















We found a little gallery which cost about $3.50 each to go in and Danny and I decided to take a look. It turned out to be worth every penny. They had a beautiful collection which mostly included sculptures of the 18 Buddhas in a variety materials including jade, topaz and oak. The admission fee included a personal guide to take show us around. She only spoke Chinese though so Danny had to translate for me.

Afterwards, we did a bit of shopping and wandered around the street. We had one of those traditional Chinese banquet type meals where I didn't eat anything before we headed home.