Today we went to Five Spring Mountain park. It seems everything scenic and pretty is up in the mountains, away from the city. Our guide was late meeting us, she said there was another big car accident that tied up traffic for a while.
The park was very pretty nice wide sidewalks that wound up the mountain. We saw a large group of people engaging in a morning dance on the square. It kinda looked like an oriental version of line dancing. There were couples on the side couple dancing that was very pretty to watch as well. Up the path there were 2 old men, one playing a traditional Chinese instrument and the other singing a ballad, It sounded very nice.
You have to pay admission to stroll in the park. Once in the park you can pay another admission and tour the zoo. It wasn't very large, and I felt a little sorry for the animals in their cement cages, they didn't look very healthy. However, it was the first time Amy had seen a zoo or animals and she enjoyed it and was frightened by some of them at the same time. She called the hyenas and kangaroos large dogs. She thought the owl was a cat, and the giraffe she called a big duck. I guess she hasn't been exposed to much in her little life. We were told she could count to 2 and didn't know any of her colors yet.
The park had amusement rides, that played very loud music. The bumper boats played the theme song from Air Wolf, very amusing to us, sometimes it switched to the Star Wars theme. There were also outdoor pool tables lined up for people to play billiards. I've never seen that before!
We fell for a tourist trap. There was a sign pointing to a cave that said it was “Amaze and Terror Cave” it showed a picture of a natural cave. We love going to caves in the US so we wanted to go. The guide didn't want to go. We asked if it was a natural cave, she said she didn't know, she had never been. I suspect she did know what it was and I was a little upset afterwards that she didn't explain it further to us before we wasted our money on it. It was just a series of rooms built underground that was a very cheap funhouse. Garish lights and music, things and sounds jumping out at us. We were not amused, Amy certainly wasn't enjoying it. There's some money we'll never see again! So if you want to tour Lanzhou, don't waste your money on the “Magic Cave”- it isn't. :-)
After Amy's nap, we walked as usual, I found a store that had good prices that I bought some souvenirs at. All of the “supermarkets” are several stories high. Grocery on one floor, clothes and other things on different floors. They are pretty much a mall. This one had a grocery cart we could put Amy in and go to the different floors. A BIG plus for us since we have to carry her everywhere and our muscles are getting pretty sore. It also had a cross between a people mover and an escalator between the floors that you could roll your cart right on and it would take you to the next floor. There's a picture of it on Flickr.
The English we see continues to crack us up. We were reading the shirts for sale that had English writing on them and they just made no sense at all! I took a picture of one, and got in trouble for it but I managed to get the picture anyway. It said, “Dark Creepy Barn safe in This” . Ok, I'm sure it is a cool shirt to wear somewhere...
We saw some jean shorts someone was wearing yesterday that said, “Tim Jurton's Nightmare Before Christmas” on the back pocket. So close, I have no idea why someone would want that on the pocket of their jeans though.
Amy is very good about taking naps and going to bed. I just put her 'jamas on and she crawls into bed and goes to sleep. Right now she is buried under her covers and is singing softly to herself. So cute.
Click here to see more pictures from our day.
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