The Travellers Pen

The trips

                                                                        

Our last trip together in Australia and China 

Simon and I just finished our trip to Australia and China within a month. We spent our Christmas time in Newcastle, Australia with Simon’s sister—Helen and her family, Simon’s mum and another sister came from Melbourne joined us as well. We had a wonderful time staying with Helen and her husband, Brad and their daughter Emma, also enjoyed their animal’s company: three horses, about 30 goats, two dogs plus Mum’s little dog, Charley; 20 chickens and around 10 ducks, the bellbirds’s singing in the morning etc. The beautiful beautiful summer season in Australia.

After two weeks in Australia, we went to Guangdong province, China. Of course, we did not sail this time either. We arrived Shenzhen city and did some touring around Zhuhai and Zhaoqing. I know Shenzhen quite well as I used to work there before I went to U.S.A. The only difference is the city has become busier, the buildings have become higher and far more of them.

In Zhuhai,which is one hour on the ferry from Shenzhen city. We visited ChenFang’s Former Residence/Meixi Royal Stone Archways. It is located at Meixi village in Qianshan, Zhuhai. It occupies 126,000 square meters and includes the following main scenes: The square of Mei xi Royal Stone Archways, the former residence of Chen Fang, Chen’s Carden and tourism service center.

Mei xi Royal Stone Archways has a long history. In Qing Dynasty, in order to award Chen Fang, the first Chinese chief consul in Hawaii, Emperor Guangxu gifted him Mei xi Royal Stone Archways it has become an important cultural relic in Guangdong Province.(see the photo below)

                                           

From Zhuhai, we took a 5 hour bus ride to Zhaoqing, a city on the North-west of Zhuhai to see the famous “Seven Star Crags”.

“The Seven Star Crags” is a famous resort located about 4 kilometres to the northern suburb of Zhaoqing city. It is composed of 7 towering crags. The seven crags, seen like the Big Dipper at a distance, standing one after another around a vast expanse of dark green lake waters. In 1636 A.D. the place was called the Star Lake Resort. It had already been widely known for its remarkable natural scenes as early as the Tang Dynasty(618-907 A.d.) Over a thousand years or more, many prominent figures and men of letters came to visit this place. They say it combine “the hills in Guilin and the West lake in Hangzhou”. 

                                                  

                                                 one of the caves inside the hill

                                                 

                                                  the beautiful lake and hills.

                                                 

                                                  happy buddha

On our way back to U.K, we stopped in Hong Kong for two days. Besides eating good Cantonese food and shopping, we did our morning excesses in Kowloon park, also we took a touring around Victoria Harbour on a traditional Chinese Junk. It was a wonderful experience for people like Simon and I who love water. I also took few photos of the Harbour: