On the Island of Dongao

A beloved friend has just sent me a photograph of herself with her road bike on a beach with small mini-islands in the background. It was a beautiful picture, and it reminded me of how much I have wanted to share the beachful aesthetics of Zhuhai in both stories and pictures.

As shown on a map several posts ago, Sun Yat-sen University is along a beachside road called Lovers' Lane. "Why don't I have any such beautiful pictures of the beach just across the road?" I asked myself. Because it is close. I can take pictures anytime, therefore, I never do. But, when I went to Dongao Dao with Serge and Lisa, I remembered to take a pic or two.

---- I was interrupted in my writing by several events, one of which being this: My roommate had a student ask her whether "Wewin" would be an appropriate English name. Carrie responded that it would look foreign and often be mispronounced, but that the student could have whatever name she wanted. Carrie went on to list other names the student could choose from based on the letter that student had been assigned (when? where? by whom? I don't know) as the first letter of her name. F... Francesca, Felicity, Fanny, Fuschia...
The email Carrie got in response said that Wewin was not currently able to read his email, but he would get right back to her.
I can hear it now. "Mr. Felicity Wang -- will you please come to the front desk. Mr. ... (*whisper whisper Are you sure it's a guy? Okay...) Mr. Felicity Wang, please come to the front desk."

Actually, girls commonly take masculine names here with full knowledge of how sexed David, Ivan, and Frank are. Sunny and Cloudy know why I want them to sit next to each other in class, and Silently remarks (quietly) on how well she chose her English name. But I don't think that 未风 (Weifeng / Wewin) is going to like the selection of names given him this morning. Perfectly good names, but probably not for a guy who wanted something along the lines of "we are the champions" for his first name.

Sooooooooo....
Let's return to the regularly scheduled programming:

The island I vacationed on during Mid-Autumn Festival (or, just before it) was small enough to walk around in a few hours. It had papaya trees and banana trees growing like sunflowers in Westerville -- not a strange sight, but also not terribly prolific.

I didn't even know that this is what a papaya tree looked like, so,
Thanks, Lisa, for pointing it out!

Our hotel was on a hill overlooking the port into which we sailed. (Is sailed the right word if you come in by a motorized boat? "...the port into which we motorized?") The stairs on the way up to the hotel got me pretty excited --- they looked so old and provincial that I remembered as I seldom do to pull my camera out and snap away a few views. Hence, the next batch of pics.

Wouldn't these stairs inspire you to take a few photographs?

Here is the view from the hotel room. I was rather pleased, but I actually spent the least time enjoying it. We spent most of our two days walking around or playing at the beach. Serge and Lisa did some Kung Fu (which is said "gong1 fu1" by the Mandarin speakers I have heard) exercises out on this patio, but I must have been busy sleeping inside, because I missed out on that action.

Zhuhai is known for its seafood; this island must be known for its contribution to Zhuhai's dried seafood market because everywhere we went, there were fish hang-drying. That bench-like apparatus near the center of the picture is covered in small fish, but that was not the kind of sight that really struck me. It was when fish were hanging from door posts and motorcycle handles that I was impressed by the locals' dedication to drying fish in all places, all the time.

Our longest walk, which was only supposed to be a brief detour on our way to the beach, took us to a hotel with a spiral staircase leading up to a lookout tower. I was hot and sweaty and ready to swim, but I still took the opportunity (at Serge's persuasion) to go up to the tower and see whether our lengthy trek during the hottest part of the day had been worth it. You can tell me whether it was:

I got this photo of the port. Our hotel is, I think, one of the furthest buildings to the left.

The hotel we walked to had a beautiful little green space...

... and some strange decorations, like a humongigous ink pot:

The primary attraction of the hotel -- the one that convinced us to take the detour -- was the "Spring of Sun." Like every other English translation on the island, this was a misleading one. It meant to say something along the lines of "Spring That Will Bring Women Who Visit It a Son," which can be quite the selling point in China.

So, of course, there was a Guanyin statue with a baby boy in her lap,...

... and the spring ...
... neither of which made me any more confident of the sex of my potential child(ren).

I am happy we spent the night on that island. It was the night before Mid-Autumn Festival, and I forgot to appreciate the moon once I got back to Zhuhai. Fortunately, Lisa, Serge, and I stopped to enjoy the moon rising over an island peak the night before everyone else took their good long look at the moon; so, with what may be described as an American mentality, I could claim that we beat everyone to it. We enjoyed the moon before it was full, when others thought it flawed. Of course, then I have to admit that the moon has been celebrated every autumn in China for over a thousand years... so, I don't even win my own game.

But, I got a picture out of it =)