Things got more itneresting on the 2nd day as we started to go sightseeing and also travel up to the Hakka's land, Meizhou which is deep in the mountain and we are all frozen while having our dinner...
We have a good healthy breakfast at the hotel cafe(confirmed more healthy than what I have back in Singapore)...I must say it was tummy filling and we din managed to finish them
After makan, we checked out our room and loaded up our luggages onto the van again as we leave the hotel....the van moved towards the older part of the Shantou city
Saw this cab overloading the boot
We went onto this very beautiful bridge
After crossing the bridge need to pay toll for it.....
then we came to this temple
The "Men Shen" or door deity of the side door
The tour guide say if want to bore child....we must touch the backside of these 2 kids
The inner hall.........
It is sort of standard to have a big bell on the right and the big drum on the left of the main inner hall......striking the drum will alert the deity in the temple
Interestingly, this temple consist of the taoism part which is where we entered first and shown above and also the buddhism part which is a pagoda....unfortunately, the lift is under repair so we din get to go up...but the interior of the ground level is very impressive
We got out of the buddhist temple and saw 12 little monks by the side, each representing the 12 chinese horoscopes
The pagoda from outside.....
We left the temple and went towards another place called Chaoyang, which is anotehr teochew place...this is something extra in the programme
This type of taxi very common in this part of china
Reached the temple and saw this pretty gal selling pintang hulu outside
Today is 2nd day of Chinese New Year and the temple is full of pple due to the activities organised inside like our River Angbao
The have games store with interesting prizes like pet turtle, birds and goldfish...
They also have exciting rides....
food....
and balloons for the kids....
After 20min walk from the entrance squeezing with the crowd, we finally reached the main temple area....
We decided to just U-turn as we see more crowd up there....
It took us another 20min just to scramble out of the place and went for our lunch.........it was at another place called Hui Lai
reached the centre of the small town area and saw a huge crowd on the street....wonder what is going on....
Our van squeezed thru and managed to reached our resturant....another round of typical teochew cqusine.......
Wang Lao Ji is a common beverage there...u can see it everywhere selling drinks.....
After lunch, we head back to the street and found out what happened earlier one.....they are having some chinese new year procession....
anywhere we managed to squeeze ourselves out and head towards our next destination: Xuan Wu Shan
We were walking into the premises and saw this interesting tablet
cannot take the temple interior but managed to catch this interesting sign (if u know chinese)
Fire-cracker is banned in city area now in China but some places allow designated place for people do it...and this temple has a corner for people to lit fire-cracker and we also have a try on it....
There is a whole row of stalls selling fire-crackers and other fire-works along the street
After all the fun, we head out for another 2hrs journey into the mountain area belonging to the Hakka in Meizhou...the scenery changes
100km away from shantou
A signage saying Not doing birth control is illegal
After an hour ride, the van stopped for a toilet break....damn..it was very cold....about 7-10 degree C with wind...the toilet is very clean
see those colourful boards above the urinates, those are road safety knowledge...i think we need this in Singapore
Very nice scenery outside the toilet
The sky got darker as we enter the city.....the temperature drops....and we are all shivering...5-7 degree C..a very nice lady came upon our bus as our guide in meizhou (OK i pst her photo for day 3)....she led us to this very nice restuarant called Wan Xiu Lou...which opened by a rich Taiwan businessman and was converted from a very big mansion....
The interior is very nice
big teapot in the garden
We were placed at the outside...so we are all freezing as we are treated to traditional dose of delicious Hakka dishes...
The Hakka people stays in the mountain....got not much seafood but rear poulty.....and they have to keep their food for longer time so they preserved their food....so their dishes tends to taste more salty and oily....unfortunately,i think we are too cold to able to taste that...we just want to fill our stomach and get out of the place.........
we were send to our hotel in the city centre.....settled down and we thought of walking the street...
unfortunately, it was new year and msot of the shops are closed....and those which are opened are closing by the time got out of the street so we din walk much...anyway, the temperature is low...lower than shantou the nite before so we head back early....
For the Meizhou guide book in the hotel room and saw this overview if the Hakka area
an also the highway map that we where travelling on...for most part of our trip, we are on the each side of Guangdong province..Meizhou is on the North-eastern side...and tomorrow, we will travel south to Jieyang at the central eastern area
.................
To be continue on day 3
1 comment:
Nice pictures Taz! Looks like you are having lots of fun :)
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