江南

Nope. It is definitely not the title of the latest Chinese pop song. Neither is it a novel on the martial arts “武侠” world which the media depicts. It’s the place, or rather places, which I visited during the Chinese Lunar New Year two weeks back. 江南 is a very beautiful place. As the saying goes, 上有天堂，下有苏杭. See, going to the country does improve one’s ability in that particular language.

If you have noticed, I have changed my blog’s banner with a photo of some 梅花 which I took during the trip. Apart from the fact that I love the beauty they portray, they also signify the change in season and denotes a welcome for the new year.

The trip took me to 上海，无锡，富阳，苏州，and 杭州.

Here are some photos of the trip.

My flight was delayed from 10.10am to 2pm. It was a long wait…

I love the leave-like shape of the shelter outside T2. Adds a nice airy and natural feel to the place.

Trolleys.

This house used to be the residence of some big-shot official in Suzhou. You can tell by the nicely manicured garden. I wish I had such a garden to go to each morning and evening. Such a relaxing place. You can feel stress easing away just standing by the garden and enjoying the serenity of it.

Now I fully appreciate the Chinese saying 开门见山. You literally see a “mountain” at every door. Fancy that!

Hangzhou is as lovely as what the Hangzhou people would have you believe. 西湖 is really picturesque. The lake is so still. The breeze so cool. One can just lose oneself in the peaceful surroundings. I am definitely visiting Hangzhou as a single stop in the future.

This was a postcard moment. Not an easy shot as I had to jostle with hordes of other tourists. Love the atmosphere of old ancient villages. By the way, this is 西瑭, a very old village near Shanghai. The place was bursting with tourists. Pity we only had time to dine there.

This is none other than a shot taken in the famous 城隍庙 in Shanghai. You guessed it. It’s the Year of the PIG! Oink! Oink!

Inspired by the wishing tree in Hong Kong, the opportunistic Chinese erected one of their own, with golden leaves to boot, in the middle of 城隍庙 so that people can toss a slip of red paper with their wish on it onto the branches of the tree. The belief is that is the slip manages to hang onto any of the branches, one’s wish will come true in the next year. By the way, each slip costs 5 renminbi, or S$1. And look and how “red” the tree is. Bet the owner of the tree threw the first wish, with the word “prosperity” on it.

And that my friends is a short pictorial journey of my 江南 trip. There will be video clips in YouTube later once I edit my very first movies filmed using my new Handycam. Do look out for it.