NYU sponsors three overnight trips to cities nearby Shanghai: Yangzhou, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. Our group chose to go to Yangzhou as our weekend trip. Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in the central Jiangsu Province. It sits on the northern bank of the Yangtze River.
The drive from Shanghai to Yangzhou is about three to four hours; therefore, we departed bright and early at 8am (well, it wasn't that early...). This trip includes transportation, accommodations, tour guides, and meals.
Each meal was very similar, all consisting of traditional Yangzhou cuisine. Once you sit down, the first dishes served are all cold dishes, followed by the main "warm" dishes (not too sure what you would call these...hot dishes?) Yangzhou cuisine is known to have an appealing color, aroma, taste, and appearance, and no oily sauces are usually added. Some traditional Yangzhou dishes include Yangzhou fried rice, 狮子头 (Lion's head-meatballs), 扬州干丝 (dried bean curd in soup). Each of these three dishes were included in every meal we had in Yangzhou.
Our first stop: He Garden, which is located on Xuningmen Street. The whole garden is divided into two parts: the east and the west section. The east garden contains four walls, which houses the main building of the garden. The west garden there is a pool in the center of the building walls.
Next Stop: Slender West Lake, which is considered to be a national park of China. It is located in the Hanjiang District of Yangzhou. The lake consists of a few attractions: Lotus Flower Pagoda, Small Gold Mountain, and the Fishing Platform (which was a favorite of the Qing Emperor, Qianlong).
Slender West Lake
Slender West Lake
Tiana taking Colin's "senior portrait"
The 1201 crew
All the 朋友's...and ducky!!
After dinner, we were treated to a traditional Yangzhou show, the kind that is performed as the audiences are enjoying tea and sunflower seeds. The show consisted of dancing, singing, and a few musical instruments. A photo-op was allowed with the performers after the show.
Our hotel breakfast :D
First stop of the next day: Ge Garden. Many gardens constructed during the Han Dynasty did not last through the years, except for the Ge Garden and a few other Yangzhou gardens. The garden uses bamboo and rocks as its principal elements. The rocks are formed from different kinds of rocks to represent a different season, hence the name "four-season-rockery."
Our last stop of the trip: Daming Temple, which is located in the city's northwest. The original temple was built in the Song Dynasty. The temple is nine stories high. Unfortunately, much of the garden where the temple was located was all under construction.
Overall, this trip consisted of way too many gardens. Granted that this is what is famous in Yangzhou, what we heard from the Suzhou and Hangzhou trips made Yangzhou seem very unexciting. It was also a little less adventurous compared to our Spring Break (that could have been why). However, it was nice to have a trip where we didn't have to worry about finding transportation, paying admission fees, or planning what to do ourselves.
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