Thursday, February 21, 2008
8th Feb (Day 2: 莆田湄洲岛妈祖庙、泉州老君岩、开元寺）
Hi all, sorry for the very late post! Internet at home in my room has been sucky and uploading of any sorts is TEDIOUS! *pulls hair*Anyway, I've decided against captions for my photos, simply because centering them is so troublesome! :X And they shall be in chronological/random order, unlike the 七宝老街 post. :)
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China temples are beautiful.
So colourful and gay! Look at the flags! They make the temples feel like a gigantic funfair! ^^
The day started with a long ride to 湄洲岛. Needless to say, the island was named as such because it's shaped like your eye brows.
China has pretty decent bridges, I have to say. What's more, it's like a 'gantry' with a big label telling where you are entering/leaving.
This is the other side of the bridge as the buss passes under. Apparently, being environmentally friendly is big here. So, just like you should use both side of the paper, we should write on both side of the bridge! (Okay, this is lame. The only reason is because the highway is two-way.)
The boat rides are rather few and far between. Even though our tour guide assured us that the frequency will increase during CNY, all of us had quite a wait.
And being YOUNG and ENERGETIC, my housemates and I got rather hungry (plus, we didn't eat much during breakfast). Sadly, I forgot what the snack is called. (I think it is called 芜糕... not too sure though.) It's a little sweet and sticky. Pretty nice, I would say. :)
Finally, we reached! You're WRONG! I wandered off and found this small temple under renonvation. It reads 天上圣母.
Yea! CNY! Every door has a pair of couplets (春联)! ^^
Big gourd. Guess what is it used for?
Clue: It's found beside the temple.
Yea.. It's for people to burn their offerings to the gods. Pretty big for such a small temple.
Finally we left the shore of 莆田 and headed off to 湄洲岛. A line of old and rusty looking sheeps lined the shore. The tour guide told us some story about the 厦门 Chinese being one of the earliest to separate the hull of the ships into 13 segments. You know, in case one segment lets in water, the ship wouldn't sink. :)
The man of the ship. Our lives are in his hands! But wait, he's slacking!
Seagulls are aplenty! If you zoom in, you can actually see them taking off. Pretty! ^^
This is the faraway 妈祖庙. Can you see the big 妈祖 statue?
天妃2号. Nope, I didn't take this. I took one with a cornier name - 海神1号. HAHAHA!
Digressing a bit, we were cheated to go to the second storey of the ferry and paid 2RMB. DO NOT BE CHEATED! You can go up by the outside of the ferry!
The people at 福建省 likes to use such red arch balloons as greetings. Looks like some wedding arch, only minus the flowers.
Street-side snacks. I'm so tempted to buy and try and ask what they're called, but the tour guide walked rather fast!
There! Our fit, fast and furious (okay, not) tour guide 小林. She's cutest in the whole tour! Hee... Poor girl, she have to forgot 4 days of her precious CNY to accompany us. Coincidentally, she's been a tour guide for 4 years already!
This is our guide at 湄洲岛. He speaks rather fast, and I have no idea what he's saying half the time (not to mention the din made by the firecrackers).
This is ONE of the many temples that houses the many different 妈祖 statues. No, I didn't pray (with joss sticks and all) if that's what you are wondering. Oooh... I love 飞檐s！The more there is, the higher status the 'owner' of the building has. This one has 2 dragons on top.
This is another of the pagoda-like building. I like this picture 'cos it's colourful and there's this mosiac-ed look. Stare at the rectangles and you'll get what I mean.
Flags and pagoda! Seems like there're not many people right? SO WRONG. The people are standing behind me!
天后宫, loosely translated as Empress Palace. It's on fire. :x
朝天阁，loosely translated as Look Sky Pagoda. So much smoke... almost dying... of course look at sky lah!
See what I mean when I say there're alot of people. And none of them look like they're ready to leave this place.
And because of lack of oxygen, I ended up in heaven. *kidding*
Just a normal tourisy picture to show I've been there. Teeheehee! ^^
Super big statue of 妈祖. Apparently, there's many 妈祖 figures around the place, and each of them have a different history. 湄洲岛 has close relationships with Taiwan, good or bad, I'm not sure. The tour guide told us that one of the 妈祖 figure has a super black face (from all the smoke and soot) because it's the only one that's not washed before. The Taiwanese believes that the blacker the face, the more 灵验 will be the 妈祖.
The dragons are dancing but nobody is looking. :(
福禄寿! Perfect picture if not for that auntie. *roars*
Anyway, animals roam China freely. Here's a lion.
A tortoise specially for Tortiz.
And a dragon. He's snarling at you, bleahz!
I really wanted to go in an 祈福 for my love ones in Singapore... but once again, no time! :(
We spent the day walking. Super alot of steps. And if going down looks daunting, take a look at the following picture.
Upwards!
Coincidentally, there's a drum performance going on. It wasn't fascinating at all; the performers need more practice!
This is one of the many repeated stalls that sells seashells ornaments. And when I see seashells, I think of Ying. Missed her. :(
So after all the steps, mountain-climbing and going without snacks, we had a pretty sumptuous lunch! This is 兴华米粉. Taste like what my 阿麽 makes during CNY; made me missed home extra.
Some salted-prawns which I didn't touch. My housemates said they were still alive when they ordered. Eeeee...
Oyster omelette! It's nice! Alot of small little oysters! It's different from the oyster omelettes in Singapore (though I still miss the Singapore ones more).
老君岩 houses the 老君, seen in the above picture. Some artist carved the 老君 out of this stone (which originally looked like an old man already). There's some myth behind, saying if you touch a particular part of the 老君, you will get something.Touching the head means I can build a house! Building a house in Singapore is a BIG DEAL okay!
But I'm greedy. I took the whole 老君 home to touch. MUAHAHA!
And I kissed him. OOPSY! :P
Here's 孔子 and 老子. I showed them who's boss, climbed right in front of them and snatched their books. These old folks, they can only stare with their mouth wide open!
Ahem, 天长地久 on the stone. Till the stone erodes, then it'll become 曾经拥有.
There's 2 pagodas in the 开元寺, one in the East, another in the West. 小林 told us they weathered some terrible earthquakes. Strong hor!But I'm stronger! I can push it upright! :P
Nice hor! The carvings are so intricate...
Anyway, while walking out, I saw this. There's a 'hole' in the tree and there's figures inside! Reminds me of the Monkey God news back in Singapore!
Okay, this is random and I have nothing much to say. The Chinese like to write everywhere!
ALOT OF MOPS! All lined up. It feels like soldiers are going to rush out and fight with mops.Anyway, I just love pictures with nice lines. ^^
A BIG pot of chrysanthemums. One colour, PRETTY. :)
This is the East Pagoda. The silly me thought it was the same pagoda and asked my housemates why we walked back to the same place!Labels: China, food, GIP, travel
posted by QueenPig @ 3:34 PM
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