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the walls (St Francis healing the sick etc) and statues around the altar. In the surrounding grounds, a garden seemed to have been abandoned; a large copper statue dominated. We managed to snap a few interior shots. With the light fading rapidly, we walked down to a nearby spring from where St Francis was supposed to have drawn his water supply. The stone upon which he is said to have died can still be seen.
We were rushed onwards for our remaining sight-seeing: a huge, fat Buddha on the nearby hillside, an ex-PLA storage cave which had been turned into the Nine Dragons Cave, complete with waxwork figures, and Flying Sand beach - a lovely 2-mile stretch where our hotel was situated. A few weeks before our visit, the hotels had all been full for the Golden Week holiday in China, but now everywhere seemed deserted except for a few hopeful souvenir shops. The hotel itself was also empty but we were nevertheless given rooms right next to the disco and so were "entertained" (or changed rooms in our case) to the sounds of karaoke till 3am.
We agreed on an early start the next morning, including a pre-breakfast swim despite a chilly wind, to enable us to include an extra sight on our tour, back on the mainland - a typical village with watch tower. Roger, our guide, was very accommodating on this, though as we sped through the outskirts of Tai Shan we also spotted a Ming dynasty pagoda in the distance which looked worthy of investigation: "No time” was Roger's response, which, at least, provided us a good reason to return.
After lunch in Tai Shan, we walked around the central area and Roger showed us a recently completed pedestrian mall. The old facades of the buildings had all been renovated and painted in pastel tones - our photographs look like a typical Macau street scene. Tucked amongst the mall buildings was another church and we were invited inside by the female pastor, Huang Bi Juan. She gave us a brief history of the "Three Self Patriotic Protestant Church" and its present active role serving some 200 local families.
We took the country road for our return journey and soon spotted a suitable village with watchtower. We wandered into our chosen village with its harvest of golden grain spread out to dry in the sun in front of the houses, and spoke to some elderly residents - one old lady was 105
439
the walls (St Francis healing the sick etc) and statues around the altar. In the surrounding grounds, a garden seemed to have been abandoned; a large copper statue dominated. We managed to snap a few interior shots. With the light fading rapidly, we walked down to a nearby spring from where St Francis was supposed to have drawn his water supply. The stone upon which he is said to have died can still be seen.
We were rushed onwards for our remaining sight-seeing: a huge, fat Buddha on the nearby hillside, an ex-PLA storage cave which had been turned into the Nine Dragons Cave, complete with waxwork figures, and Flying Sand beach - a lovely 2-mile stretch where our hotel was situated. A few weeks before our visit, the hotels had all been full for the Golden Week holiday in China, but now everywhere seemed deserted except for a few hopeful souvenir shops. The hotel itself was also empty but we were nevertheless given rooms right next to the disco and so were "entertained" (or changed rooms in our case) to the sounds of karaoke till 3am.
We agreed on an early start the next morning, including a pre- breakfast swim despite a chilly wind, to enable us to include an extra sight on our tour, back on the mainland - a typical village with watch tower. Roger, our guide, was very accommodating on this, though as we sped through the outskirts of Tai Shan we also spotted a Ming dynasty pagoda in the distance which looked worthy of investigation: "No time” was Roger's response, which, at least, provided us a good reason to
return..
After lunch in Tai Shan, we walked around the central area and Roger showed us a recently completed pedestrian mall. The old facades of the buildings had all been renovated and painted in pastel tones - our photographs look like a typical Macau street scene, Tucked amongst the mall buildings was another church and we were invited inside by the female pastor, Huang Bi Juan. She gave us a brief history of the "Three Self Patriotic Protestant Church" and its present active role serving some 200 local families.
We took the country road for our return journey and soon spotted a suitable village with watchtower. We wandered into our chosen village with its harvest of golden grain spread out to dry in the sun in front of the houses, and spoke to some elderly residents - one old lady was 105
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