Aug 2008

Yuanshan National Forest Park
Located southwest of the Boshan District, it is the only national level forest park in Zibo consisting of five scenic areas. The great wall of the Qi Kingdom, grass skiing field, dinosaur valley and folk custom garden are all attractions of the park. It took us 3 hours to navigate our way through the park. They had signs in English which of course was extremely helpful. My advice is avoid the need to pee. I wasn't sure whether to pee or throw up - the smell was that bad.

Linzi Chinese ancient Vehicle Museum
The Museum is located in Linzi district. It shows China's first system, the most comprehensive to horsemen heritage sites and the ancient vehicle display museum.

Zibo Museum of Ceramics
We had two attempts at going to the ceramics museum. On both times it was closed. However you can tell from the surrounding shops that Zibo is really the place to buy ceramics.

Yiyuan Karst Caves
Caves are always difficult to describe. You really need to see them to appreciate them. Photos never do them any justice. We had a guided tour which of course was wasted on us as we can't understand Chinese. It wasn't an option though. It took about an hour to go through the caves. There is also a waterfall at the same sight. We went to the top of the waterfall and then followed the arrows. The arrows had us climbing a mountain. After climbing this forever we were saturated and decided to turn around. When we finally reached the outside the driver had been looking for us. OOPS! The 1.5 drive back to the hotel never dried our clothes. We were tired and cranky. But still managed to go out for dinner. Amazing what a shower can do!

Lushan Forest Park
This is the original Mountain National Forest Park. Don't know that it was anything spectacular. They had a pleasure playground with suspension bridges which we tried to cross very unsuccessfully! There was a lake of some description but because of the fog we couldn't see where it went to. There was a pagoda and a water wheel. Not a great deal really or we just missed it!

Pu Songling's House
In Zichuan district near Zibo stands the house in which Pu Songling (1640 - 1715) wrote the well-known collection of tales entitled "Curious Stories from the Liao Studio". He lived here until he was 30, and returned to his native town when he was 71. The exhibition hall provides information on the writer's life and work.

Remains of Qi Kingdom Capital
A 30 sq.km/11.5sq.mi area of the remains of the capital of the Qi Kingdom in the Linzi district has been excavated. Founded 2900 years ago, the city was surrounded by a defensive wall. The city possessed a perfect sewerage system which also took away the waste water from the bronze and iron-smelting furnaces. In the course of the digs archaeologists also discovered coin mints and workshops in which tools were produced from bones. Some of the finds can be seen in the Archaeological Museum in Zibo's Old town.

Tombs
Large Numbers of tombs are to be found in the countryside around Zibo, including the Tomb of the Two Kings, in which the two Dukes of Qi, Huan (reigned 685 - 643 BC) and Jinggong (reigned 547 - 490 BC), are interred, as well as the Tomb of Guan Zhong one of the founders of Legalism.

Zhoucun Ancient Town
Zhoucun is located in the west of Zibo city. It has a distinguished history and reputation as a 'Silk Town', 'Golden Zhoucun' and 'Inland Port'. Zhoucan was awarded the title of 'No 1 Village' by Emperor Qianlong in the year 1750. Zhoucun Ancient Commercial Town is situated right at the centre of downtown Zhoucun. Its tourism zone mainly consists of Dajie St, Sishi St and Yinzishi St, Amongst which the well preserved ancient commercial buildings are a major part. The major attractions are Big Dying Workshop, Museum of Art, Qianfoge Temples, Sanyi Hall, Folk Customs Exhibition Centre, The Mansion for the Number One Scholar, The Courtyard of the Yang Family, Private Bank Museum and Kuixing Temple. The town has also been a shooting spot for the TV series 'Inland Port', 'Big Dyeing Workshop', 'Who Pays the Bill of Dream', 'The Grand Garden' and movies 'To Live' and 'The truth of Xuan Tianya Event'.

One of the sights we wanted to see around Jinan was Zibo - (pronounced z bah). Barbara and I decided this time we would just base ourselves in Zibo. We had heard mixed reports about Zibo ie don't go it's terrible, the Chinese don't like it, the pollution is bad, there is nothing to do or see, all the way to you will have a great time. Well we have a great time every where we go! We took no notice and headed to Zibo.

Zibo has a population of 4.1M. There are 5 districts - Zhangdian, Zichuan, Boshan, Linzi, Zhoucan.

Zibo is in the center of Shandong Province, neighboring Mt Tai in the south (that's where I live) and backing the Yellow River in the north. It is also bordered by coastal tourist cities, Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai, and the capital city of the province, Jinan is west. The city is a vital communication hub of Shandong.

Zibo was the capital city of Qi Kingdom, one of the five powers in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC). Cuju, a game regarded as the origin of ancient football, has risen since then, and Zibo is titled to be the birthplace of football by FIFA. Zibo, as the name of the city, began in the early 1920's for the exploitation of coal mines in Zichuan and Boshan.

Zibo is located in the transition zone between mountainous area in central Shandong and North China Plain. It's southern area is occupied by mountains, the centre is hilly and the northern part is plain area.

July is the hottest month and probably not a good time to go. Spring is probably ideal. Best to avoid January and July as the coldest and hottest months.

Local specialties include handicrafts: inside painting, colored glaze, silk, ceramics, Zi Inkstone; Foods: apple, Jinsi (golden threads) and duck egg

Since I've been in China I have never found anywhere to have a pedicure. Today I found a place in the cobble street near Dai Temple.

I was in desperate need of a pedicure. What an experience. I sat in a very comfortable pink swede chair. My feet soaked in some minerals with rose buds. It was Y80 which is expensive by Chinese standards but cheap by our standards and worth every single cent

Well for me it is. My sister, Wendy, rang me not thinking about the time difference and woke me up. It was 7.30 am.

This got me started early for the day. I was on my way to the gym before 9am. Gym opens at 9 am.

Walking to the gym I saw a whole new crowd of people. They seemed friendlier, wanted to stop and chat. My walk was very pleasant.

Walking to the gym I noticed that a building that is either being refurbished or pulled down was on fire. I had great concern as the black smoke willowed out of the building into an already polluted air. I thought that this was how they were going to bring this building down. Obviously they don't know the Dean brothers!

I continued walking to the gym and heard the fire brigade on it's way. Relieved that this is not the method of destruction.

When I was walking back to the apartment after the gym I noticed that the fire was out. However the smoke stayed in the air for a couple of days.