Week 2
Day 4

“La la la la” I don’t know how to hum the song that was played by the P.A system in the morning. We were woken up by it to have our breakfast. Breakfast on the ship was a little better than their lunch. We had hard boiled eggs, noodles, porridge, a little peanut, and other small dishes.

We did our journals while waiting for the ship to reach our destination which was the Shennong River. The girls in our group have been sick for a few days already, so Satish and I were taking care of them, administering medication and stuff…

We reached the river after passing quite a number of beautiful landscapes. The river was a place where 20 years ago, would have no tourist and was a place of mainly men, as the rowers of the wooden sampan were always naked. But now they are clothed and tourists are flooding the area.
We had to go on a small sampan which rowed out into the river. The river came into a point where the water was shallow so the rowers came out to pull the boat. As the river was just too shallow, we had to turn the boat around and head back to shore. We took the ferry to our next destination. Before that, my camera actually spoiled before we went out on the ferry, was really saddened by it.

We reached the Baidi City in the evening, and we had to rush to finish it as it was close to nightfall. The city was on an island that is only linked by a bridge. It was located on a hill and lit with green lights. Eerie right? The only way to access it is through a long flight of stairs which we climbed till we also dropped! There were many ancient carrier seats that could be rented for us to sit to the top, but we followed the guide to the top. There was a joke that they made regarding every time the guide led a group, he or she had to climb so many flight of stairs, imagine the guide at the great wall? They would be so fit by the end of the year!

Inside the small place were many tablets and statues of the ancients heroes, they were remade for tourist to see, but many remnants were not there. We notices there were many tablets of ancient writings, and the statues looked really scary! There was an ancient statue and interest many. It was a statue and if u touched her hand it would mean all is well for you, and if you touch the hips, it would bring you good health, etc. Of course many people touch it all over for everything good. We left the city soon enough after purchasing what we presumed to be authentic specially crafted combs which wood has medicinal values.
We had dinner on the ferry before proceeding to sleep while the ferry brought us back to the dock.

Ancient history is all around us. It is up to us to see and learn about it. I’m a Chinese and I should know more about Chinese history. I feel ashamed that many things that I have heard about the sites that we visited I do not know about. Although I was born in Singapore, but I must not forget or not learn the history about my race. So I plan to read back all the history once I’m back in Singapore.