Wenmiao and Wet Weather
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2007
1
5
9
Trip End
Apr 13, 2007
Anshun, China
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
We looked around for a restaurant before going to the temple, as we hadn't eaten yet today. Nothing very interesting, so we walked along the road that led to the temple. Suddenly there were dozens of stalls selling a variety of street food. We had a meal of things on sticks, where the vendor used a hair-drier to dry the items as they cooked. It was not bad but Yoong was not pleased when she ordered some sticks without spices and they still arrived covered in the usual pepper and dry chilly that we find everywhere here. There were some delicious potato-cakes at another stall, something like hash-browns cooked in chilli powder, but Yoong did succeed this time in getting some without the chilli. Earlier in the day we had bought some lovely fresh strawberries from a street vendor and we'd brought some along for dessert.
Our internet information told us the entrance price to the Confucian Temple was Y30 and so did a sign at the ticket office. For some reason, however, the tickets were actually only Y10. The temple was very pleasant despite the constant drizzle, with some very skillful stone carvings. We had the place to ourselves, though I'm sure tour groups would be brought here as it is one of the main attractions of Anshun city.
We spent some time exploring the small streets around the temple and couldn't resist trying more street food. One place had delicious potato crisps, with or without chilli powder. We bought a few yuans worth of the plain ones and we've been snacking on them ever since. Better than any of the packaged crisps in the supermarkets and far cheaper.
We found some batik shops, one of the products Anshun is noted for, but didn't buy any of the colourful material, apart from a shirt we thought Dylan might like. Nothing my size as usual. When we walked back to the bus stop and crossed the road we found we were beside a large lake where it was possible to take a boat ride. We decided against it because of the weather, but on a fine day it would be very pleasant, with the limestone karsts in the background.
We had a rest back at the hotel, where we watched a bit of "The Poseidon Adventure", but watching it in Mandarin wasn't much of an improvement on the original. We then took another bus ride around the town, this time Bus 2, staying on board until we got back where we started, did an hour of email, then went to see if my shoes were ready.
We had already gone back to both shops to see if the shoes could be ready by Monday evening as we didn't want any delay on Tuesday. Both had assured us they could do it.
First was the more expensive place. The shoes were good, but a little too tight for comfort. They spent some time adjusting them, mainly taking out part of the lining, and we agreed to go ahead with the purchase. The leather is soft goatskin and they claim it will stretch. At least I have something to protect my feet from the wet ground, and they are better quality than any of my other shoes.
The second shoe shop produced a pair which was just too tight for me to consider. We suspect they didn't actually make them but just ordered in the biggest pair they could get. In any case, they were quite okay with us not going ahead with it.
Now that we had the shoes organized we headed to the station to book our tickets back to Guiyang. We found there were no seats left for the morning train, but booked anyway rather than wait around in Anshun until 6:30 p.m. We don't know where to get buses and don't like the sound of the bus ride. Surely we can stand up for less than one and a half hours. People without seats on the journey here seemed to cope all right.
By dinner time the rain had stopped so we decided to eat further away from the station area. We found a restaurant with fresh vegetables on display and ordered an aubergine with pork, cauliflower with mushrooms and, when we asked about tofu, they suggested a soup with tofu and green vegetables. All the dishes were excellent. The meal would have gone well with a beer, but we felt it was just too cold and stuck with the tea they gave us. This delicious meal was cheaper than those at the place we've been patronizing, which may explain why there were a lot more customers here.
Raymond's Travel Page
