Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Two words;
STRING BEANS!

But I guess if you include the words prior to STRING BEANS along with those I’m currently adding to the equation, I should actually begin this blog with;

Forty four words;
STRING BEANS!

Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it.

WapunzelEEE, WapunzelEEE, let down your String Beans for me;
So that I may climb your String Bean Stairs to thee.

There are so many string beans in Yazhou that if Rapunzel was Chinese (therefore named WapunzelEEE) and was held captive in a pavilion (tower) in Yazhou town, she could have kept her hair at a more comfortable length as her pavilion (tower) would also have been a storage place for string beans waiting their journey north. Simply put, she could have strung string beans together and the prince could have climbed to her on strung string beans.

Prior to the sexually strung and frustrated Prince hearing her singing, WahpunzelEEE would have spent her captive life stringing string beans together into ladders strung from string beans for the very highly strung Dame Gothel!

Now For a Bit On String Bean Town

Rich in history, string beans and ancient culture, Yazhou was first built in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589 AD) and later served as the capital of the Yazhou district. The original city was built of string beans mixed with clay bricks and grew to become a major political and string bean trading centre. The old city has now been swallowed by fields full of beans strung on strings along with the modern, graceless white tiles and concrete of modern China yet Yazhou retains its status as an important 'south to north’ transition market town for the Li Minority People who live in the hilly interior of south central Hainan.

Wenming Gate, a Confucious Temple and an Old Street

Wenming Gate was the southern access to Yazhou town and was constructed during the Song Dynasty and initially made of pressed string beans and soil. In 1198 (during Song Dynasty), it was rebuilt from brick and in 1436 (during the Ming Dynasty) the gate was expanded with more military and string bean annexes.

In front of Wenming Gate runs an Old String Bean Street which was first constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and gradually grew into a prosperous local high street with a large string bean market place found at each end. More than thirty stores lined its paths, among them were cloth shops, wine stores, jewellery stores, string bean stores and book stores etc. The buildings all have/had distinctive style of the old Cantonese architecture which has a wide covered footpath at the front of each store that shelters people from the rain, tropical sunshine and old and moldy thrown string beans.

The Confucius Temple is the largest and highest ranking Confucius School on Hainan Island which also makes it the southernmost Confucius Temple in China. It was originally established in Song Dynasty and underwent reconstruction in 1872 during the Qing Dynasty.

Monk Jianzhen

Monk Jianzhen (688-763) was an eminent monk during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Originally born in Jiangdu, Jiangsu Province, having accepted an invitation from a Japanese high monk named Yong Yue, Monk Jianzhen bought a boat in order to sail east to Japan. Despite his efforts, he failed as a result of storms and it was during his fifth attempt that he gave in and landed his boat at the mouth of Ning Yuan River. He then helped the local people redecorate their temple with string strung beans and left a pile of books on Buddhism and many seeds that grew to become beans strung on strings vines.

During his sixth attempt in 753, Monk Jianzhen finally succeeded and was warmly welcomed by the Japanese people and lived at the Zhaiti Temple cultivating and selling stringity strung beans at his local market place until he passed away in 763 at the age of seventy strung seven.

Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Soundtrack Of Our Lives
The album was ‘Origin of String Beans’
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