Day trip to Ma An Shan, Anhui province; with Big Foot tours

The first I heard about the Ma An Shan tour was via QQ - early April, with the message;

"Tour the schedule: the morning to "small Jiuhuashan" and then go to "Phoenix Lake" Resort, and lunch at the resort. Resort has a bamboo forest, which will go to a museum visit."

The bus left off at about 7.50am from the Gulou one way system (by the small bus station there) and  arrived at Ma An Shan (horse saddle mountain) just in time to climb the Guangji temple mountain  after making the necessary toilet stops along the way. 

Ma An Shan although in Anhui is actually not much further away than Gao Chun. To my surprise one of my keenest students comes from Ma An Shan.

Major industry in Ma An Shan is steel, and surprisingly the production of  Hualing cement mixers and dump trucks that find their way to Nanjing for construction work. Chinese trucks never seem to last very long - I think if they get five years out of them they are doing well!

A Ma An Shan made cement mixer - a very common sight in Nanjing and surrounding area

Apart from seeing lots of all kinds of trucks our first task was to climb the Guanji Temple Mountain. It looked really steep from the bottom, most of the travelers made it to the top - except my friends friend who I called nei nei - Grandma. 

View from ground zero - looks like a very steep hill 

Maanshan's name, which means "horse saddle mountain" in Chinese, comes from a Chinese legend. Legend has it that Xiang Yu, a prominent general in Chinese history, committed suicide in the region of present Maanshan after he was defeated by Liu Bang. Xiang Yu's beloved horse leapt into the river when it saw Xiang Yu die. The people buried the horse saddle in a hill, and the hill became known as Maanshan.

The Guangji Temple, one of the earliest Buddhist sites in China, was first built in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25-220). Putang Landscape Zone, lying in the eastern part of Maanshan,

After lunch, the schedule included taking in a newly built museum. Surprisingly for such a little place the museum had three levels - one for anthropology, one for relics and a gallery. Nothing was in English, but nei nei was on hand to explain some of the details I had missed. 

"To my surprise my attention was turned to the picture of a man who lived in the same area as me and my friend (Pukou) many hundreds of years ago. The man, held in high esteem throughout the area for his poetry and good character on closer inspection seemed to bear close resemblance to my good friend Chen Ya Qin, I was left thinking - how ironic, some distant ancestor perhaps...." 

The day at Ma An Shan finished with a stop at the Putang Landscape Zone (bamboo forest park) where we had a small picnic, enjoyed the sun and relaxed until the bus took us back to Najing.

Me at the huge Putang landscape zone (bamboo forest park)

 

Comments

[Sally]

Your trip to Anhui Province sounds great and your photographs are very nice. I am told that Anhui are the makers of "daisy tea" a tea which was, at one point, only consumed by Emperors, mainly because the tea was yellow. But today I think they stain the product with mild mercury and use a variety of flowers. It tastes quite nice, I'm told.

I like the way Chinese name their tourist attractions. One attraction I visited myself was called "The pimple on the old man's nose botanical garden." When I saw the face of the old man selling tickets, the name, I thought, made great sense. I declined to go on the tour which would have visited the "Great Failing Staircase of Chu Mansion," although seats were available.

Some museums are rather small in China, as Mr. Stuart will attest to. And some museums are mere wheelbarrows. Once when I went to "the tower overlooking where the sun set at night" (Anhui Province), I saw a woman pushing a wheelbarrow full of threaded seashell necklaces. She said she worked for the local museum. I doubted it. But as she knew the place where the sun set, I was easily convinced.

The tours in China usually have hidden stops, just as Mr. Stuart notes. For example when I visited the Great Wall of China, there were 13 hidden or undiscussed stops on the way. One stop was a jade market, another was the bus-driver's brother's restaraunt, and another was a large cosmetic shop selling lipsticks and such. The women were greatly pleased and got great deals on mascara while most of the men sat smoking on the coach. After the twelfth stop (a plastic shoe emporium), I had all but forgotten about the Great Wall. Eventually reaching our advertised tourist destination, we were informed that we didn't have time to get off the bus, and so merely saw it from the bus window as we flew by.

It is a genuine question whether anyone could understand the commentary of the tour anyway due to the tour guide's obsession with nibbling crackers everytime she spoke over the microphone. Still we all had a good time and I have great photographs of the back of the deeply reclined knee-crushing coach-chair that I was sitting behind all day.

Thanks for the Blog Mr. Stuart. I look forward to reading more!

[Administrator]

I love that concept Rob! I will get my students to pick obscure festivals and places to visit and see which one makes me laugh the most.

How do you remember all these funny translations? I've heard some stories about Tour companies actually being sponsored by shops and markets. I had a tour guide who took me to various places which always seemed to cost money in Hainan.

In Sanya I did learn that they sell the most wonderful sea food, and you can buy the most beautiful pearls you can imagine. I shared the most amazing seafood meal with my motorcycle and sidecar driver. I used him exclusively and we became good pals (unsurprisingly).

I bought some lovely pearls at the pearl place too. Its funny how I seem to "tune in" to a friend's colour combination and style. I bought some pink ones, bright orange and two shades of green. I hope the owners still treasure them!

I heard on one tour the passengers refused to get out at one of the shops or go in. The tour arrangers went ape-shit apparently, and threatened to call the whole tour off. Seemed like they wouldn't have even broken into profit without the sponsorship of the markets and shops along the way!

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