Saturday 27 October

Observation post and the bridge
across the river

View across the river to the college
(white building)

Today I explored the northern part of Quzhou. After crossing the bridge from the college, I slowly walked north along the river.

At irregular intervals there are some sort of observation posts which are quite cute. The majority of buildings on this side are fairly new apartment blocks. Just as in Australia, everyone likes to live near the water.

Fishing in the river

Fishing in a lunch break?

The Qujiang river looks fairly murky but that doesn’t stop people fishing along the riverbank.

The preferred system seems to be to throw in a number of lines and then relax while the bait does its job – reading the paper or playing cards.  Some people even look like they’ve thrown in a line during a lunch break.

Preparing for wedding photographs
near a fishing boat

The happy couple

There are some fishing boats that are moored along the shore, so there is some commercial fishing of sorts. I don’t think the catch is large.

The day was quite hazy and warm, so I’ve ‘punched’ up the photographs to give them a bit more dynamic range. Speaking of photographs, there was a wedding couple today posing for their formal photographs near the fishing boats.

Just as in Australia, wedding photographers are always looking for photogenic locations. Loved the jacket.

Walking with arms up

One person walking backwards and
another doing high-kicks

The local community makes good use of the riversides. Although not crowded, there are always people either fishing, walking or exercising. There are any number of types of exercises people do here.

A very popular one is walking backwards – this is supposed to be good for you back, however most people are craning their necks at the same time to see where they are going. This may also help the neck muscles!

Another popular one is walking with arms in the air. This seems to be more preferred by women than men. There are also many variations on what we would have called PE exercises in our youth – touching toes, bending backwards, sideways and forwards, etc.

Pagoda alongside the river

Pagoda detail

Near the apex of the river bend (topmost point) there is a large pagoda which could be used for special functions, just as pavilions in our parks.

It’s quite massive in construction with a dynamic stone sculpture featuring fish in the foreground.

 There are quite a few new apartment buildings being built near the river as part of the expansion of the city – upper right of the map.

Building luxury, transcending life art

Next to the Second School means
district room (?)

The promotional billboards were interesting, similar to those in Australia where the sell the promise of an improved lifestyle. The language just as meaningless.

From this point I headed back towards the city centre. After a short distance, I was back into a shopping district, with the usual assortment of food stores, household goods and eateries.

I  found it interesting that was there were four wine shops close together - this is unusual as there are very  few wine shops. most sell imported wines and Chinese liquor. These ones specialised in Californian, French and South American wines. They are quite expensive for locals, 100-200 Yuan ($15-$20 AUS) and probably only intended as gifts, not drinking at home or with friends. When a meal in a local cafe costs around 10 Yuan, that’s quite a lot of money.

Another view of the game

Intense street-corner game of Chinese 
checkers

On the way I came across a group of men playing Chinese checkers. I was undecided as to whether they would mind if I took a photograph, but they were all so engrossed in the game that no-one even noticed me.

This was very unusual, considering that whenever I walk anywhere, people nearly always turn and look, especially away from the central areas like this.

Rebirth CD

Nearby, I came across a small DVD, VCD, CD store and thought I’d try to buy some music that is used for the street dancing. The discussion with the saleslady was very animated, with neither of us understanding each other, but I eventually came away with a triple CD that has tracks with a very heavy beat, but similar to the music I was looking for.

The cover had some interesting English:  ZERO, REBIRTH, Build perfect car stereo space, Top Slow, Wave Day the Chinese dish, Popular DJ album thermal recommended!