Okay, now TODAY was the best day.
We all met up at the hotel, and took a train to Shao Shan, the birthplace of Chairman Mao Zedong. I understand that Mao is kind of a big deal around here, but does it warrant a day trip to his home town? We’ll see.
The train ride was unforgettable. It was about 2 hours, passing by rice paddies and fields of lotus flowers and countryside. Beautiful. We could see farmers working in their fields, planting each rice plant individually by hand.
This experience was still eclipsed by our first tour in Shao Shan, to a Buddhist temple at the top of a mountain. We drove part of the way up, and took a chairlift up the rest of the way. Well, to the base of the stairs. The view was spectacular, and we spent some time enjoying the breeze and taking it all in.
The tour of Mao’s actual home was interesting, and took us on the closest thing we have had to nature walks so far. I actually had my first contact with local fauna today (not counting the occasional fly and mosquito). Okay, it was still an insect, but it was a praying mantis, the coolest of all insects. It was subjected to Canadian attention for a couple of hours, but survived and was released back to the wild.
After all the hiking and despite the heat small group of us forged ahead to visit the giant statue of Mao. What was particularly interesting about this site was what people did there. They would first stand in a group and recite something together, then walk around the base of the statue, and then take photos of themselves in front of the statue. We did the same, and then returned to Zhuzhou.-Paul Stinson
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