I’ve been wanting to visit this park almost since the day I got here. It surrounds a fairly tall peak, atop which is a pagoda that’s lit up at night. All of my fellow teachers have told me the park is huge and beautiful…except for the zoo. Apparently there’s a horribly sad zoo where they keep lions in a concrete enclosure the size of our kitchen. I managed to avoid it, lest I burst out crying.
I also experienced a first today — I’ve been told it’ll happen again. A complete stranger asked to take a photo with me.
AND. You’ll see one very bad photo I managed to snap of a butterfly. Huge, magnificent butterflies like you have never SEEN. They were such divas — none would stop and pose.
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- I don’t know what this is either: best guess is a piece of military equipment.
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- Inside the pagoda.
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- Going upstairs.
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- View from the top!
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- The building with the crazy glass roof is the Zhongshan Expo Centre. It’s enormous.
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- The two tall grey buildings are Ocean Plaza. At their base is Carre Four, the big supermarket we do most of our shopping at, and lots of takeaway shops — McDonalds, KungFu (China’s KFC), Bubble tea, and Starbucks, to name a few.
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- Hibiscus!
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- Rose garden.
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- View down the steps to the main entrance.
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- Rose garden.
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- Path up to the pagoda.
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- I’m pretty sure this is bamboo!
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- Hibiscus shrubs growing UP the embankment.
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- The first character is “mountain.” That’s all I’ve got.
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- Trees I don’t recognise.
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- First peak at the top of the mountain.
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- The pagoda.
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- Those are cannons. I don’t know why they’re here, or what they represent.
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- View north from the base of the pagoda.
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- Closer to the cannons.
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- Looking east.
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- Look on the fence…that’s a butterfly.
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- Pond with VERY TALL lily pad leaves.
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- Bridge that zig zags over the pond.
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- Could not tell you.
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- This either. They’re in the same pond as the zodiac, but set away from them.
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- Crouching Dragon! And behind him, crouching Bull.
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- Monkey trying to eat the dragon’s tail?
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- I didn’t find this today. BUT I WILL.
