The Trip To Treasure Island.

Our first week of classes was done (phew) and a trip had been planned for us. It was an overnight trip to Nan'ao island of the coast of mainland China.

We were up early and meeting the bus at 8:00 am. We were out of the University and on the road towards downtown Shantou. On the way the bus pulled over at a bus stop and the doors opened. I thought it strange that we would stop at a regular bus stop, but then Wanli the trip coordinator from Shantou hopped on the bus.

The bus then took us through Shantou and to the ferry port. Onto the ferry and over the sea. We were able to get out of the ferry mid ride but it was rather crowded. We climbed the stairs up to the observation deck and crammed ourselves in with the Chinese. We could not see a lot but we are all celebrities here. Everywhere we go there are stares and there are people whispering about us. Its great!

Most Crowded Ferry... Ever!

The ride only took half an hour before we reached the island. The bus piled off of the boat and began driving over the island. We started in the town on the island... a town... I am not really sure, all I know is there are about 60,000 people on the island. Like before as we were driving along the bus stopped. It looked like we were stopping for no reason when a Chinese woman hopped on the bus. Now we had a tour guide.

Our first stop was the Dragon Well. This island holds a strong military position, and one of the reasons for this is because it has a source of fresh water on the island. The last Emperor of the Song Dynasty took refuge on Nan'ao Island and then had wells dug near the ocean. The wells produced only salt water. The Emperor needed fresh water so that he could survive on the island. He prayed to the gods and with some kind of miracle the water became fresh. There were three wells originally, the Dragon Well for the Emperor, the Tiger Well for the Nobles, and the Horse Well for the Peasants.

Over time the wells were lost, but in a recent earthquake one of them has resurfaced. It is believe to be the Dragon Well, and it is believe that men who drink from it will become more handsome, and women who drink from it will become more beautiful.

Naturally, we had no need to drink from the well... but... we thought it couldn't hurt...

Magic Well!

Magic Water!!!

Well drunk on Magic Water and growing more beautiful by the minute we hopped on the bus and moved to our next destination. We went to a restaurant serving all sorts of interesting foods, but that is not what made it special. What made it special is that the restaurant was just underneath the largest field of Wind Turbines (Mills) in all of Asia.

The meal was interesting. On Nan'ao Island people harvest two things primarily. The first, is a seaweed that they pull from the sea and dry on any flat surface they can find, for example, roads. This does mean that two lane roads are reduced to one lane because Dragon Whiskers are drying on the rest. The second thing they harvest... well... we will get to that later...

For lunch we had a soup with Dragon Whiskers in it (they are really just like green noodles) and then a Golden Dragon fish... that was grey. Also, they make a seaweed tea that seems to just be a scoop of sea water that has been reduced some to give it a brownish colour. I highly recommend limiting you intake of that stuff.

Lunch done we had one more site for the day. We drove on through the countryside on roads covered in Dragon Whiskers and through fields covered in rice. Oxen are still used for farming and it appears as you would have imagined it for the past two thousand years.

We arrived at our destination which used to be a military base. There was not much to see except for a few cannons and a map of what the installation used to be. Even on outlaying islands such as these the history runs deeper than the deepest springs. It is so unlike home where we have but scratched the surface of our great country.

That first week of school was brutal. Well, maybe not, but there were at least a few hours spent in the classroom, so... we needed a break. On the bus and before you knew it we were at the hotel where we were to spend the night. It was not any hotel, but a hotel with a 2.8 km beach free of rocks and pollution.

Life on the South China Sea

That afternoon we hit the beach. There was a lot of swimming in the waves, and playing Frisbee, and one of our crew even had a camel ride. It was great, though there was a rather large amount of concern about my choice of bathing suit. Wait. Concern is not the right word.

Admiration...

1. Back by popular demand, the Speedo.

2. Hello Kitty Hatband.

3. The Picturebook is Restored... and Waterproof!!!

We went back to town for supper where we ate in a floating restaurant. The restaurant was in the harbour in there were holding tanks for various types of seafood on the main floor. The tanks were connected to the water in the sea, but nets held the animals inside. There were all sorts of fish, shellfish, cuttlefish, and a whole lot of stuff I could not really identify. In another enclosure there were four of the largest Giant Sea Turtles that I have ever seen. I hope they were not for eating.

Another meal of the strangest tea and food (including sea urchins) and then we were off to town. It was a short trip but it gave us an opportunity to see some of the main foods on the island. There is only one main food. Fish. Store after store is filled with dried fish. It really appears that the market is saturated, but they have to be making money somewhere.

Back at the hotel for some drinks on the beach and then sleep.

4:50 am and the alarm goes of. I get to the beach just before 5 am and most people are already there. We sit and we wait. The sky gets lighter and lighter and then at once the sun breaks free of the haze and illuminates what we can sea of the South China Sea.

Beautiful.

I am soooo awesome... oh yeah... and there was this sunrise too...

I was locked out of my room for a few hours after that since my roommate was sleeping in another room and since he had our only key, but I wasn't the only one locked out. So, at 6 am we started to shop for the other thing that Nan'ao island produces. Pearls. Surrounding the island at various points are pearl farms that stretch out as far as the eye can see. It is something else entirely... I always just thought it was people with snorkels going to get them... you learn something new every day...

Another breakfast. Gah. This time I tried their congee (soggy rice in a bowl of watery stuff) and it was about what I expected. It tasted like a bowl of soggy rice and watery stuff. I cannot wait for a Canadian breakfast.

Finally up and away we had one more destination on the island before we were going to head back to Shantou. We drove, and we got there.

Treasure Island.

Treasure Island: The Movie

It had been used to store treasure though much of it had been found. There is still a riddle regarding treasure that is rumoured to be hidden. Pirates have used Nan'ao Island as a base for pirates many times so it seemed natural to hide some booty there. We did walk to Treasure Island but we found no gold or silver, instead we found another kind of Treasure: Shells.

Treasure Island

Booty

The bus took us back to the town and back to the ferry port. Most people were already asleep by that point. It was 2:00 pm. The ferry was not leaving for another hour so they let us off the bus. There was a temple on a nearby hill, and as long as we could be back by 2:45 pm we could go explore. We did, we being the six of us who were not asleep.

We climbed a long staircase and then were at the most beautiful temple I have ever seen. It was not a bunch of painted stone and painted concrete, but real carvings and sculptures. The two front pillars were spiraling dragons carved from a single stone, and the sculptures on the roof were made of hundreds of pieces. Each dragon scale was another piece. A call came on one of the Chinese Student's cell phones and we were summoned back to the bus early in hopes of catching an earlier ferry.

Nan'ao Temple

On the bus, bye tour guide. On the ferry. On the campus, bye Wanli. In the bed.

Nocturn.