Day 141 – Liaocheng

When we woke up, the resort was socked in with fog.  We had breakfast and the drivers asked if we could delay leaving until 10 instead of 9:30, to see if the fog would lessen.  It was okay with us, we took our time at breakfast and then getting checked out.  It did let up by 10, so we were okay to leave.

This is what the fog looked like about 9.  When we first looked out at 7, we couldn't even see the lake!

Part of the restored village that was on the island.

Cool dragon statue by the lake.

Outside the gates, a picture of the pagoda.

We went into the city of Liaocheng and first of all went to the lake.  The wind was rather cold, but we bundled up and went for a walk.  A walkway led to an island where they have built some ancient looking buildings that you can go see when they are open.  Well, today they were not.  We took some pictures and then headed back to the bus because of the cold wind. 

Then we had headed to an area of the city where they are making a tourist place built around an ancient tower that was used to build fires to warn the people of marauders in the 13^th century.  It was so well build that the brick parts have sometimes fallen and had to be repaired, but the wood parts are so latticed together that they are mostly original to the tower.  There were four main beams on the inside that are all one wooden beam, going from the top of the wall where the tower starts up to the top of the four stories.  We were so glad that Kathy was along so that she could interpret what a Chinese guide was saying on the tour.  We climbed all the way to the top floor.

The watchtower of the city of Liaocheng.

 

The first of many stairs to climb the watchtower.

They are building a city around the tower that looks like the old cities of China would have been.  They are still in the process of doing it.  Looks like a huge project.  It would be cool if they were to do reenactments of Chinese life too.

Another set of stairs, getting smaller.  I couldn't get any more pictures because the rest were so dark and a flash would not have worked well.  They got narrower also.

The top level.  Very colorful.

The guides were also going to take us to see the Grand Canal (goes from Beijing to Hangzhou –the longest canal in the world – over 1100 miles long).  It was begun in the 5^th Century and took many centuries to complete.  Rather interesting.  Across from the canal, was an ancient government building that was used for two provinces to share, but we were too hungry and cold at this point to want to spend any time in it (and spend another 30-40 RMB), so we climbed back in the bus and found a KFC for lunch.  The trip back to Ji’nan went pretty fast until we hit high traffic in the city.  They dropped us off at our campuses.

The Grand Canal.  It was pretty impressive!

The shared provincial government buildings.  It would have been neat...

I woke up yesterday morning with conjunctivitis (pink-eye), and started taking an antibiotic I had brought with me for it.  I wished it had been penicillin because I know it would have helped, but when I woke up this morning, my eyes were even worse, so I was pretty sure the antibiotic was not helping.  As we were coming into the apartment, we met Pam, a US teacher who has been teaching here for 13 years and she told us how to get something from the nearest pharmacy to help me.  After a short rest, we walked to the pharmacy.  I showed the pharmacy gal my eyes and she showed me the stuff I needed for it.  She didn’t speak English and had a hard time remembering number translations to even tell us much, but someone in the store knew the numbers and was helping her out with that.  It’s not every day they get Anglos walking into their store!  I think the drops are helping…