To be frank, we don't have good sense of directions, and even the husband, H. is a pretty new driver. And soon our first obstacle was how could we drive out of Hangzhou then onto the highway to Anhui province.( shitang is within xiakeng town, anhui province.)
We drove on westwards till ZZ remembered a new cemetery nearby. And we were at wrong direction. Hurriedly we turned around and drove back to the intersection and corrected to the opposite way, till we were relieved to read the sign to the highway.
The sky was still overcast although the rain kinda stopped. Along the road, more fields and hills appeared into our sights. On terraces were green bushes of tea and bamboo, with occasionally some patches or dots of pink peach trees and yellow rapeseed flowers.
Soon we came to linlong a tollgate of Hangzhou-anhui highway, where we witness many private cars or tour buses. We know most of them were going to Wuyuan, a becoming popular destination for ancient anhui-style architecture and for rapeseed flowers too. ( Good thing is years ago, we have visited there before it's too touristy now.)
H. decided to have a short rest, for he didn't sleep much. We, so concerned, comforted him by making no time limit. ZZ had big events break too, while W. the wife and I reconfirmed some info I got from the internet, from which outlet we should drive off the highway to xiakeng town.
H. woke up and continued driving; while listening music and enjoying great foods, we soon found the outlet Sanyang and the ticket woman confirmed our direction. However, when we were running on the hill path to xiakeng, we had to stop every intersection for some help. Also it was on the half hill-way, we stopped by the edge to take some snaps. Under the hills were large patches of yellow flowers against background of white village houses.
Feeling the cool breeze, welcomed by such a great view, we were excited that we made right decision to come. We caught sight of a middle aged man, on his motorcycle.
ZZ acted very polite and with her sweet smiles, she asked:
'please, how long is xiakeng away from here?'
'xiakeng town? about three li.'
'Three li?' ZZ continued,' is it three gong-li? ( gong-li is the Chinese for kilometer.)
'no,no,no gong-li; it's three li.'
'no gong-li?' The rest of us began to laugh about why ZZ was so surprised.
The man was half amused and half angry, 'no gong-li, it's three li, three hua-li.'
Hua-li, is Chinese-li, half the distance of a kilometer.
So we couldn't help but burst into laughters.
After thanking the man for his great patience, we started the engine; we were marching to a place some distances away. Who really cared how far exactly away, if we were on the correct way.
No comments:
Post a Comment