Weekend Trip to 连云港

This weekend, the ACS class took a weekend trip to 连云港 (Lianyungang). We knew the trip was going to be awesome when, within about 30 minutes of leaving campus, we rammed into a little Volkswagon with our tour bus. We won that battle and bathed in victory for two hours on the side of the road.


Lianyungang is home to 花果山 (Mountain of Flowers and Fruit). Although a lot of different towns say that their Mountain of Flowers and Fruit is the real one, only Lianyungang's Mountain of Flowers and Fruit actually received recognition from Chairman Mao. This particular mountain is very important in Chinese folklore because it's where 孙悟空 (the stone monkey and chief protagonist of the 16th century classical Chinese novel Journey to the West) lived and reigned as king of the monkeys.


But that's boring stuff (It's actually really interesting if you're a Chinese major and living on this side of the world, which none/few of you are, so I'll spare you those details). What's cool is that there were real monkeys there and waterfalls and whatnot. It rained, though, and was kind of cold, but I have to admit - getting cold is a nice relief from daily heat strokes in Shanghai.


That night, we went to a hot springs hotel. I'll spare the details about the 30 or so completely naked Chinese men, the scalding water and the way-too-hot sauna. Just know that if you ever go to a Chinese hot spring or bathhouse, be prepared to see a lot.

The next day, we left the hotel early (thankfully) and drove the hour or so back into the Lianyungang city center. Lianyungang, a small city of only 4 million-ish people, is absolutely dead at night and devoid of any foreigners. The nine laowai walking down the streets got some odd stares for sure.

In Lianyungang, we took a boat tour of the harbor, a dinky, polluted little place with a lot of tour boats and noxious air. It was fun.


After that we went to an "aquarium" (water minority museum in Chinese), which was actually a tight, damp, concrete tunnel that went under the road and had fake whales, Finding Nemo posters and illegal animals everywhere. It was fun, too.


After that, we went to a beach paradise. No sarcasm there, actually. It was a pretty nice place, especially for a "small town" in "rural" China. Overdoing it with the quotes, but whatever.


So, the bus rides (6 hours to Lianyungang, an hour to hot springs, and hour back, an hour here and hour there blah blah) got really long. To make up for all that time sitting, we decided to get some dancing in at Lianyunang's two clubs (That's a 2+ million to one people to club ratio). The stringbean was danced. Fail.



Finally, on Sunday we went to 鱼湾 (roughly, fish harbor). It was nice, although there hasn't been any water there (thus no fisherman) since "an ancient earthquake that changed the geographical structure of the land" made the waters recede. Sounds fishy. I meant to be punny.



Picture with this monkey for 2 RMB? Yes, please.


This is my bicycle!



Enjoy!