Seven months of planning

Pretty much since arriving to China the idea of going to Putuoshan Island had been haunting me. It always looked little too complicated to get there, overnight boat idea sounded tempting, but getting the ticket, finding the wharf and facing the situation that always all the tickets are sold out... Anyway it is all possible, even if the tickets are sold out in the ticket office, then there is always a bunch of agents around the office offering the tickets...
Actually for the events and concerts getting tickets in this way has become one of the favorite options. There are just hundreds of "agents" offering tickets, first price as it is, but when the concert is already about to start, then the prices tend to fall fast. To keep it safe the best way is to hand the money over the fence only after passing through ticket checking and the ticket problem is solved. Though just this week there was a bigger failure with Cats musical, even though the prices came down from 1250 to 750, it still felt way too overpriced.
... and then making to the ship where modest 8 people cabins were promised, finally finishing up in the very bottom of the boat with open area with some 20+ bunk beds, straw mats on them. All worth the trouble.
Island itself turned out to be very nice especially if getting away from the more crowded tourist spots. Chinese tourists don't like to walk that much, so it is not that hard to find rather lonely but very beautiful spots, if willing to go somewhere the small tourist buses don't go.



Doing laundry and washing veggies in the center of the town.






Meal






Coming from work





Monster 1




Monster 2





Temple with no tourist bus stop nearby, not a single other tourist around.





Beautiful swimming spot. No need to worry about sharks, cause there were no security guys running and shouting to get you out from the sea cause there are no protective shark nets. I wonder how many sharks are in so crowded waters!? On one of the more crowded beaches twice my swimming was finished by one of those guys. Maybe the actual reason was that the official swimming beach was charging little entrance fee so obviously everywhere else it is not allowed to touch the water.
And imagine just 10 month ago in Malaysia seeking diving spots to swim together with sharks.... :)





In the temple





Menu in the sea food restaurant directly in front of the guest house.





Restaurant when the main rush hour is already over.





In the lower right corner is the only official swimming beach of the island packed with people standing in the water.

Second set of Wuxi

This entry is to celebrate 100 posts in this blog. And of course happy birthday Esko!


Fish and flower life. If you want to see all kind of bonds full of colourful fishes then China is the place to visit.






Smoke candles in front of a pagoda.






The Grand Channel. Almost as busy as any other transport route on the land. It is amazing how (over)loaded the boats are, on some of them the main deck was constantly under under water.