Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,
 
Today was a huge day!
A day of walking and a day of beautiful Ningbo!
 
I decided not to zig zag so much today but to walk close to water and relax with the green all around me. The only plan was to walk at least half the city along the river. I headed out for a noodle breakfast and then decided to begin at the lake. The day was a scorcher and the heat very draining. It took me about an hour to adjust and fill myself full of water.
 
Moon Lake (Yue Hu) is beautiful.
 
I slowly made my way around it and found the door ways etc that I had found last night in the fading light. Whilst I was taking a picture I heard someone say, 'that's a beautiful door'. I looked over to find a young foreign guy. He came over and we introduced ourselves. His name (I think) was Hans. He was a uni student and from Holland.
 
He was in Ningbo visiting his father who lives here with his beautiful new Chinese bride.
They have opened several factories and life is once again good!
 
We got to talking and decided as we both were out doing the same thing, why not spent the day together. Why not I thought, it'll help me with my promise of a slow day. We spent several hours 'snapping' our way around the lake and found what I thought was Mr Fans House but it was the Ningbo Textile Museum. Maybe Mr Fan was the textile guru in the past. It was a nice place to visit and only cost 10 Yuan to enter.
 
There were a heap of pictures and it was obvious a run down on the fabric/textile industry in this area.
 
We then moved on to the Bell Tower which was open and free to enter. Thankfully as it was tiny and really had nothing in it except for a few pictures. Not so exciting so we left wondering where the bloody bell was. HHHmmm! We then walked around the area where the night market was and found it was also a day market but it was only half as much fun in the light. Can't they ever get enough of selling things that people buy but never use?
 
I honestly thought it only worked at night time and that during the daylight hour's people had more sense.
 
Not far past the market was Zhongshan Gongyuan (park). Here we walked around its small yet shady grounds as the 'elderly peoples' karaoke cackled beside us. We then headed to KFC to try to cool down a bit and maybe dry off a tad. Man it was hot out!
 
My next stop was to visit the Portuguese Catholic Church that is found just over Xinjiang Bridge. Hans decided to have a look also so we headed towards the Yuyao Jiang (river) and walked beside it until the church came into view. Mate, how surprised was I of its beauty. It really was a stunning sight. It has to be one the most beautiful churches I've visited in China.
 
But I don't think anything will surpass the French style Church I visited in Yangzhou!
Plain and simple yet stunning!
 
Known as Tianzhu Jiaotang, this one was built in 1628 and after being destroyed it was rebuilt in 1872. Sadly it was closed so we couldn't check the inside out. As I'm more of an 'inside a temple man' than an 'inside a church man' this didn't worry me too much. The outside was enough for me.
 
As Hans had a family dinner party to attend we said our goodbyes and I continued to walk along the Yong Jiang (river) which is the second fork that runs into Fenghuang Jiang (river). Here is where I found the 'jazzy' new and wealthy part of town. All the new apartment buildings were built in an 'arty' manner and to accompany them were heaps of expensive bars and coffee shops with more expensive cars parked out front. This area can be found between Reming Lu and Zhongmu Lu (around the ferry terminal area). I walked around here for awhile and then headed back to the church, crossed the river and headed down to the Baizhang Donglu Bridge. After crossing to my side of the river I made my way along the Fenghua Jiang (river) to the last bridge.
 
I then headed slowly back to the hotel of 'Scantily clad Night Beauties'.
 
So, Ningbo.
What's it like?
 
The river walk really was beautiful and if I was to spend one more day here I would walk the other half of the city along the river. It is a pretty little city that reminds me a lot of Hefei in Anhui Province. It's mostly surrounded by rivers and bridges and the riversides are full of green leaves, grass and gardens.
 
After a shower and a rest I was soon visited by the Night Beauties who were obviously on their break and brought along some Joutsa (dumplings) and more green tea. We done our best to chat about where I had been that day and after awhile it was time to lay both their chop sticks and themselves down and begin work again.
 
Beers N Noodles toya....shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was Roger Waters
The album was 'Amused To Death'.