heh, finally, I am going to try to post a few select photos from the past couple of days.. oh, the joys of the 'countryside'... I only hope this comp can handle it.. starting second attempt *crosses fingers*

ok, i give up. It's taking too long to upload even 1 miserly 700kb photo. Sorry.. hopefully Suzhou works out.. if I get bored I'll try to upload again =P

Anyway, today was spent at Hong Cun, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and 'one of the top ten most senic villages in China'. It certainly lives up to the name, I must say. I was there at the same time as what must be the entire cohort of art students in AnHui. Everywhere I turned, at every obscure corner where at any other time I would have been the only visitor, there was at least one or 2 students, if not a horde of them, perched on their little folding stools w a drawing board in front of them. Ah well. better than the usual tour groups. Some of their sketches/painting were actually quite good. The teachers usu had a big group surrounding them, so there was no hope of seeing their work... But yeah nice. and nice street food.. that's prob part of the reason I liked it =P

And before I forget, I really liked the bus ride to the village as well. The chinese countryside.. through smaller towns and little villages... mountains/hills/rocks/valleys/vegetable patches/rice? fields/fields of heather?(yellow flowers)/village kids/friendly passengers and bus lady/river/passing motor vehicles, one of which was a bike which was buried under a mountian of xiao bai cai... I definately like the less developed places better than the big cities..

Anyway, back to TunXi aka Huang Shan Shi to see the Lao Jie, which is basically a tourist street. I was very very tempted to shop.. made a seal for myself and a handphone trinket w my name (i wanted to make for friends too but i realised I have no idea how to write your chinese names =P ). There's lots of street food and little stalls and snacks! and the normal food is great tasting and cheap and has lots of ingredients too! There was a kind of black seseme paste that has red dates and raisins and nuts and the tangyuan flour mini balls and lots of stuff.. and there was this black tang hoon thing w sausage and vege and tuakwa in ball forn and bamboo shoots and musrooms in a slight spicy beany soup.. and satay and bbq squid on a stick.. and the snacks are great too.. I really like Tunxi and the area its in best out of all the places on this trip so far...

have I mentioned that HuangShan is impressive in my last post? I would like to go again, because my mood was totally spoiled by this woman who just stuck to me and kept talking (or more accurately, shouting) all the way up and on the mountain, and had bad breath, and was just so rushed and so 'scenic spot orientated'. I don't think she very really SAW any of those spots, she was always looking at the map and planning which other spots were to must sees... sigh..

anyway, I will leave for suzhou on the 7am bus. not sure how long it will take, but the trian is super slow and takes 12h and the bus driver from hangzhou to tangkou described it as 'painful'. So the bus it is. The roads are fairly good, the buses are all clean, public transport incl bus are easy to figure out and cheap, new highways makes travel between cities a breeze.. travelling here is much easier than I expected. Though I know that speaking mandarin is a huge part of that.. I have met westerners who don't know a word, and have been here 6months, so I guess it's possible to manage without, but it prob takes a lot more patience, though I guess they get a pass since they are so obviously foreign...

I don't think this blog can really convey what I'm experiencing.. there's too much, and at the same time, nothing to say...

ah well, I'd better go sleep soon in case I miss the bus tml!!