Life is Edible: China Day 3: Wuxi

Still on the bus...the boats look so spiffy!

And I finally arrive to Wuxi!

Stood outside for a bit, waiting for my tour guide to buy tickets? I think? I don't know what she was doing. Someone teach me Mandarin please! Past the gate thingy, were two fountains:

People were washing their hands and drinking from it. I don't know why though. I assume it's some sort of spiritual thing.. so I copied them and washed my hands too! :D

People were throwing coins in the center.. I don't know why though.

So I did it too! :D My coin didn't make it to the center though.

Continuing on my journey...

An awesome structure thing!!

No time to stop and take pretty pictures though. Walking a little further...

More awesome pretty structure things!

And doves everywhere

We continued walking and were led here. Time for lunch yum

Mmm meat

Yumm

Blegh tofu. The spice made up for it though. Yeah I'm Chinese and I don't like tofu!!

Delicious soup

The structure thing I saw earlier opened up and was spraying water everywhere. There was music blasting out of the speakers too. Turns out it was a giant ass fountain!

Hundreds of people gathered and stared in awe

People took out their bottles and started filling them with the water coming out of the littler dragon fountains.

The bulb thing at the very top opened up and had this guy spinning around inside.

Check out all the details on the fountain. Breathtaking and beautiful. It was pretty overwhelming too. I was just standing there gawking rather than taking pictures. Had to enjoy the moment :)

I spotted an interesting palace over there! Too bad we didn't go there :(

I'm assuming we're going there next

..but before that. I had to wash my hands in the fountain just like everyone else hehe if only I knew why! People back in Seattle warned me not to drink the water in another country BUT GUESS WHAT I DID LOL. I wanted to fully experience the culture! I didn't get sick from it either.

People taking turns putting water in their bottles

Now to head on over to the giant Buddha

More doves! They fly onto people's arms, hands and shoulders. So fairy tale-like!

Giant Buddha, I'm on my way! But of course, it'll be a long walk to get there.

Rawr.

THERE'S A WHITE GUY!

People praying

There was a giant Buddha hand that people were touching while circling around it. I can't even imagine how many hands have been through there to make it fade like that! I don't know why people were touching it... but you know I went to go do it too!

More incense and candles along the way

Yesss finally here! That's my tour guide. "Meet back here in an hour. I'll be waiting down here!" She said that all in Mandarin though.. I assume that's what she said :P

Of course I had to get a picture with it. Ugh look at all those stairs. I hadn't fully recovered from all the stairs in Nanjing the day before yet.

I had to take a break at the halfway point. Sweating like crazy!! Still a long way to go.

Made it to the top of the stairs!! I still have to go through a building and up more stairs to get to the Buddha.

No clambing?? Does that mean I can climb? There was a "No Spanning" sign too but I didn't get the chance to take a picture of it. I assume it meant no spitting. Or spinning? I love Engrish!

I made it all the way up!!

People were touching Buddha's feet, so I copied them. I just aimlessly follow lol

Soooooo tall

Sooooo high up

Goodbye view. Time to go back down!

The journey back down...

But one more picture before I head down ^_^ This time I stripped down. I was wearing three layers before the walk up, now I'm down to one!

I had to take one more picture before I leave!

I'm touching Buddha's hand!! Hehe ;P

It got cold again now that the millions of stairs are gone.

Now to head back to the bus. I took pictures of everything! Enjoy seeing what I see:

Stopped by to wash my hand at the lotus fountain again :)

My tour guide leading the way

Peace out Giant Buddha place!

Souvenirs! I didn't buy anything though.. I wish I did. I regret not getting anything.

I assume this was a trash bin since it said "No May Reclaim" ..but then wtf is the one behind it?? "May Reclaim"?? Gross!! I love Engrish!

Sitting down on the bus felt good. My legs were melting off. Yup, I copied everyone there and collected some of the water from that Buddha fountain! My souvenir :D

After being on the bus for who knows how long, we stopped by here to stretch our legs and look at the view. Mmm smog.

I can read that! Something.. Sky One something.. oh, how interesting! lol

Back on the bus. There's miles and miles of construction and rebuilding!

I noticed a little boy was walking by himself in the middle of no where. A little girl on a bike came by, stopped, and gave him a ride. So cute :)

I don't know why I think people on bicycles are so cool!

After HOURS on the bus, we arrived at our second destination.

More of those cabbage flowers

More shops! Didn't buy anything though.

I noticed the guards standing still looking angry. They're like those British guards! I just had to jump up there and take a picture with him. The look on his face! lol!

Horsies. Smile :D

You can wear those costumes, sit on a horsie and get your picture taken. I wanted to do that but my tour guide was already way ahead of me :(

Wow English! Looks like I'm heading to the Peach Garden

A bull, horse, and Diana head. Dinner?

Wow it's in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean!

Following the crowd

Inside a palace place

Pretty! Girls dressed as princesses and concubines were dragging the men inside and making them take pictures with them. I wish they dragged me in there! Females could dress up as a princess and get their pictures taken. I wanted to be a Chinese princess!! Too bad no time :(

We're most likely heading over there. That's my new friend Anne ^_^

There was a dude doing Kung Fu on top of the poles! But I got here too late to take a picture of him :(

Cat!

We went through a bunch of buildings and gardens. I love the architecture. Everything looks so elegant.

FIRE something something something.. :P

Boats! How awesome would it be to ride one of those?

I spoke too soon. Turns out I do get to ride on the boat! Not being able to understand my tour guide is actually pretty cool. Everything I do is a complete surprise that way. Pleasantly wonderful surprises!

Goodbye land

There's cool looking palace buildings out there!

Heading back

Everyone getting off the boat. There's my tour guide with her green flag waiting for our return

I'm the last to get off ^_^

Bye bye boat

Some sort of training park to build big muscles and have fun!

I wonder what's up there? Walked right by it.. didn't get to go up.

I have a hard time not getting distracted. I wish I actually had time to stop and take pictures! Look how far my tour guide is already.

She led us to an arena thing. Looks like some sort of show is starting!

A battle is starting!!

Wow :O

WTF look at this dude spinning his spear around like that!!

OMG look at this dude!

This dude is spinning swords around!

This guy is nuts!! Jumping from side to side while his horse is running :O

WTF this guy is hanging from the side of his horse!

wtf him too!!!

wth kind of weapons are those?? I saw those in Dynasty Warriors! lol

WRAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Kneeling on a running horse??!

Moar battling yeahhhh!!!

Yeah!!

They're all so colorful!

Out of no where was an explosion. Scared the SHIT out of everyone.

The horse guys' minions

Another battle!

WRAAAAAAAHH!!

YAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Oh snap, a warrior in white!

Look at this badass. He must be the hero.

The evil minion got defeated. He's a bad actor.. why is he laughing?? lol!

WRAAAAAHHH!!

SWOOOOOSH

Here comes the badass to save the day!

YAAAAAAHHH!!!

Neeeeiighhhh~ I don't know how to type horse sounds bwahaha ;D

Show's over

Riding the horsies around after the show

Wow an orange tree!!!

What an exciting day! We had a long journey back to the bus where it took us to here:

Oooo pearls :O

A dude cracked opened an oyster and showed us the pearls in there. I've never seen pearls in an oyster before. So neat :D

Pearls. Lots of pretty pearls :O

I discovered the secret to why all women here have such beautiful flawless skin. PEARLS. There's cleansers and lotions made out of pearls. So I bought some to test it out!

This is made out of pearls with specs of gold. Sounds luxurious huh? :D

Dinner time! Mmm meat.

Mmm eggs

Soup

Veggies

I don't know what that is!

Dinner :D

I hadn't peed ALL day. The last time I peed was in the hotel in Nanjing. Yeah.. that was MORNING. I held it in for over 12 hours!! So I overheard "Wow the bathrooms here are clean!" So I thought "O rly?" Grabbed my toilet paper and headed on over there to relieve myself ^_^

BUT. I opened the stall and found this:

... WTF is this??! There was a stream running through all the stalls. I'm not squatting over that! What if I fall in??? That's.. that's not even a squat toilet! I have to straddle that.. OPENING? It's like a two feet drop into the stream!!!!

So I changed my mind and held in my pee again. It was pitch dark outside so I assumed our next destination was the hotel. I held in my pee for this long, a little longer won't hurt. I'm not quite ready yet to use a squat toilet. I'm still too American ^_^;