Saturday with a deceased hero of China.
The Sun Zhongshan Former Residence/Museum/Film Studio fotos.
Today was a very beautiful day. Yumi and I finally got mobilized and hopped a bus to Shiqi at about 1230pm. We got there and hopped another bus, the #12, and headed to Sun Zhongshan's Former Residence and Museum. The bus trip, complete with constant stops, was 1 hour long. But it cost 4RMB. It was a non-AC bus with metal bar seats. Very uncomfortable. But ever since I bought sandals and a pair of shorts, the weather and temperature in this area has been much nicer.
We finally got to our destinitation and saw all the nice sites. On our way there, just down the street we saw what Yumi said was "Zhongshan Castle". Really? I didn't know they had a castle here. Check out the fotos.
The area that he was born into and grew up in is known as Cui Heng village. They still have the village and his birth house. However, when he became more famous and studied abroad, the house he moved into was very interesting. It doesn't look chinese at all. It reminds me of some spanish/portugese style mixed with a little bit of Chinese style. Kinda like Macau. Yumi and I walked the grounds and everything and checked out the museum. It was very nice. Of course, most of what was said had to be approved by the Red Government so i had to take it with a grain of salt. Most of the stuff about his personal history seemed to fit, but I was wary about the political stuff they talked about in the museum.
At one point, there was this 10 year old boy who seemed a little lost. He came up to me and started asking me like 20 questions. It was neat. He spoke well, however, he couldn't answer everything I asked. He said goodbye and skipped off. Later on thru the time there I noticed him following us. We spoke a coupel times and he always said, "Goodbye." It was cute.
We had spent about 1.5 hours hanging out in this area when we pretty much finished it. It was only 330pm. I was like, "Well, it would be a waste to just go back home now, do you want to check out the Castle?" -Ok.
So we exited and decided to walk up the road. The whole way, about .5 miles or something, a nice easy walk, a chinese bicycle carriage rider rode along side of us trying to sell us a map for 6RMB. Literally, the whole 15 minutes as we walked this guy just rode along us saying the same thing and shoving the map in our face as much as he could. We finally got to the castle and it turned out to be the Zhongshan CCTV Film Studio. This is the thing that Coco mentioned last nite. We paid the entrance fee and it was open until 630pm. Sweet. We got lots of time and their seemed to be lots to see. And boy there was. It was really kool. As we gave our tickets to the people, they freely gave us the same map of the location that the bike guy was trying to sell us for 6RMB. What a dip.
It seemed as though this entire studio/set was created solely for the Sun Zhongshan TV Drama Series that played back a couple years ago.
The first thing to see was the fountain surrounded by a couple red buildings whose interiors were designed to look like the external and internal areas of the ship that Sun Zhongshan used to travel at during a famous/important period of his life. They had the cabins and the bed areas. All along the walls they had screen shots from the TV series of him and his wife at the time. Most of the pictures that showed a wife were supposed to be Soong Chin Ling from what I could figure out...his 3rd and final wife. well, maybe 2nd official wife, I don't think he married the middle one. But she is considered a wife by the chinese people.
After that we went a little farther and I saw some horses and people in Nationalist Uniforms. Looks like there may be a show. At first I thought maybe we could ride horseys because I saw a guy in plain clothes riding one. But a show started as we got there.
OMG! this was hilarious. It was also cool. They had the people ride around in a circle and do horse tricks like jumping off the horse then back on while they are riding and doing alll these acrobatics on the horse. They ultimate cheesyness though came when they had choreographed a staff fight between 3 people and it was complete with delayed sound effects presented over the speakers. It ruled. Afterwards they were giving rides around the track on a horse for 10rmb. So, we both did it. The saddle tore up all the healing flesh on my burn so it started oozing again. Yuck. But the most memorable thing about the ride was the fact that when the guy started galloping the horse my balls proceeded to be compeletely crushed. As the horse galloped I was like, "Oow ow ow ow ow ow ow ooooooow!" After my turn was up, I was getting down and one of the horses idling made a dash for the exit door to escape. I don't believe these guys treated the animals very well. I noticed alot of gashes and wounds on the horses. Then, for Yumi's turn as he was sending the horse of, the guy kicked him in the ass. Like...hard...and full of malice. I was like...shit!
After the horse rides we walked around the area and walked up the stairs that go to the chinese temple honoring Sun Zhongshan. The view from up here was spectacular. As we walked back down we heard a performance getting ready. We got there and sat down. We were really the only spectators there. It was funny. They had some "Shaolin" kids, some dancers, some gong fu, and some more dancers. Then they all gathered on the stage and waved goodbye to Yumi and I. Very cool.
We then walked around the other sets. American Town, China Town, England town, Japan Town, and the Battlefield. Over at England and American Town there were a couple of newlywed couples taking fotos at various places. And the photographer was a such a stereotype. Long hair, a hip black outfit with the shirt unbuttoned halfway down. So funny. It was a kool place. I am very happy we came across it. Check out the fotos.
We then walked back to the bus stop and started walking back to Shiqi until a bus showed up. This time we caught an AC equipped #12. 5RMB this time. We got to the Fu Hua hotel and we just barely snagged the last non-stop bus back to Xiaolan. ONce we got back, Yumi went home and I went to practice for an hour. I was going easy because my legs were still sore from Chang Quan the other night.
After practice, I met up with Yumi again and Nick, John, and Damon and we went to the Beer Gardens. It was good and relaxing. It was good. Such a good day. Such a good day. Goodnite.