20100618 张家界

First sightseeing destination: a lake named 宝峰湖. As hubby pointed out, tours in China made you walk 10 miles a day. Hah... hah... it's true. We walked, walked, walked, uphill, downhill, up-the-stairs, down-the-stairs. Those who couldn't walk, could pay for a ride in a 轿子.

We had a boat ride. When the boat approached a small boat house, a pretty girl would sing for us. An unmarried girl is called 阿妹. 阿妹 has a penchant for bespectacled guys. As for guys, to get 阿妹 to marry you, you need to answer riddles from 阿妹, by singing out your answers. Furthermore, you need to spend 3 + 3 + 3 years working hard for 阿妹. I forgot the 2 tasks for the initial 6 years. In the last 3 years, you need to handle wash-leg-water for 阿妹 every nite.

A Dragon Rock.

This is our first "compulsory shopping" stop: medicine shop. I was very mad at Mama Peh for believing their tricks and buying whatever medicines they asked her to buy. She didn't bring enough cash and lok card. But, her credit card bank didn't allow her to lok over a certain amount. She then asked me to lok my card. Then, I barked at her. Everyone was stunned.

I didn't buy anything. The massager kept asking me to buy and refuse to free my legs. The hot water had turned icy cold, yet, she refused to let me go.

This is an eye-opener for me. I've never seen such a lazy-Susan before. It "sinks" under the table so that the top surface is on a par with the table.

Lunch was served.

After lunch, we began our first day journey in Zhangjiajie Park. We had a 2-day entrance.

The tickets are soooooo advanced that the machines scan and save our thumbprints information on the entrance tickets. On the next day, we had to match our thumbprints with the information stored in our tickets. This is how the Chinese forcefully, technologically, willfully make sure that the tickets are not transferrable. Clap...clap... 好料... ho liao!

Everywhere you are in China, people try to sell things to you.

Everywhere you go in China, people try to sell service to you.

Now, this is really amazing. China can do anything. No wonder the movie 2012 mentioned that the "Noah's Arks" were built in China.

From the top of the mountain, we took a lift to go down.

The lift was descending...

The lift descended to a certain level and we're blocked out of the beautiful scenery bcoz we're inside the mountain, literally, in a cave.

Chinese like the word 第一 a lot. It used to be "the first under the sky". Now, the word has changed to "the first in the world".

It's all about Avatar everywhere.

After dinner, it was show time. The show started promptly at 8:10pm. Before the show began, there was an auction of Chinese paintings.

The design of the hall is really Chineeeseee. The chairs are solid wooden chairs, with cushion pads. This Chinese "philharmonic" auditorium has boxes for the nobles, but that was the long-gone era. Now, the boxes for the nobles were "seated" by speakers and spotlights.

After 2 hours of indoor auditorium stage show, audiences were led to the outdoor arena.

The emcee was very humourous. There was a performance where 8 big fat guys/gals were required to stand on top on a wooden plank. Underneath the wooden plank was the hero. The hero was not only capable of supporting the 8 big fat guys/gals, he was able to send vibration up too. The emcee "interviewed" each of the 8 big fat guys/gals. There were 7 guys and 1 girl. The humongous girl was from Taiwan. Then, the emcee sarcastically said the 伙食 in Taiwan must be very good. The last person being "interviewed" was the heaviest person. He was from Malaysia. The emcee then poked fun by saying, "原来，最好的伙食是在马来西亚！".

The show ended after 2.5 hours. The lighting and stage decoration were marvelous. It's worth the extra RMB 250 we had to fork out (exclusive from our tour package).

Oh... 僵尸 stories originated from Hunan. But now, they've lost the knowledge to 赶尸.