开心就好！

最近有点倒霉， 遇到几次意外，事事也不太顺利，所以心情难免也被受影响。可是现在一切都过去了。不论发生什么事，路还是得走下去。

过去的两个星期，可说是有点好转。其实应该说是过得蛮开心的。上个周末，原本在Kulim的我，毫不犹豫的赶回KL，跟一大班朋友赴约。我不想再次‘放飞机’了。上次已错过梁静如精彩演唱会及阿Boo生日party，这一次怎样都要去乱一下才行。最难得的是，大部分人都到齐，只是少了阿Kooi。我们一共开了五辆车（好像很‘geng’这样）到Sungai Buloh 去打仗 -‘Paint Ball’（是不是应该‘Kongsi Kereta’啊？）。可是真的好久没这么多人一起出动了。爽！

虽然打到一半下大雨，可是我们造打！打得没个人都变了落汤鸡，很爽！！ 打完仗，还是下着大雨，可是我们还是风雨无阻的去Kuala Selangor吃海鲜，再次的爽！过后又去Friendster喝酒，超爽！！

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原本星期一要赶回Kulim的我，因为有些变化，所以多留了一天。放工回到家跟housemates，小马&小云一起吃了小云亲手下厨的晚餐后（越煮越好吃了），我们一块到1 Utama 看电影 – ‘Harry Potter’。其实我已有几个月没进戏院了，所以可一边吃popcorn 一边看电影的感觉真棒！看完‘Harry Potter’都已接近12 点半夜了。回到家，摸一下，已经1 点多了，明天可以驾车吗？没问题，开心就好！！

Zhou Zhuang 周庄

Zhou Zhuang 周庄 lies between Shanghai 上海 and Suzhou 苏州, is an ancient town of Kunshan City 昆山市, Jiangsu Province 江苏省, where abounds with rivers and lakes. So it is thought by many to be the best waterside town in China. This ancient town has a history of more than 900 years old with many houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are about 100 houses with courtyards, and 60 of them have arch gateways made by carved bricks. With lakes on four sides, the beauty of Zhou Zhuang is specially to be found along the waterside lanes and around a number of the stone bridges.
The Map of Zhou Zhuang

You can either take a van ‘面包车’，a taxi ‘出租车’or a bus ‘公交’from KunShan Town to Zhou Zhuang. The journey is about one hour. After buying the ticket at the Ticket Office of Tourism 古镇旅游售票处，which cost us RMB100 each, we need to walk pass a bridge (which is behind me in the above picture) and walk for another 10 minutes before reaching the below entrance.
Walking beyond the archway, is a small town with lots of shop houses selling clothes, souveniers and the most famous product of Zhou Zhuang, 'Pig Leg' 沈万三蹄。

When you walk futher in, then you will come to another archway, the Ancient Memorial Archway 古牌楼。 You can see The Quanfu Pagoda 全福塔 on your right side when walking towards the archway.

Beyond this 古镇照壁 which stated 'China No.1 Waterside Village - Zhou Zhuang' 中国第一水乡 -周庄, you will come across,

Old Fashion Streets...........

Stone Bridges..........

River Sides..........

with lots of boats..........

lots of people..........

and lots of fish..........

Other attactions in Zhou Zhuang include,

The Hall of Shen Residence 沈庭..........

Shen Residence's Kitchen..........

Quanfu Temple 全福寺..........Chinese Opera..........

and many many more..........

Before leaving, managed to grab a 'pig leg' 沈万三蹄 for RMB28 and went home with a pair of extreme tired human legs and a very satisfied heart.

Tai-Hu 太湖

Before I start my journey to XiShan 西山, a town located on the biggest island of Tai-Hu 太湖, let me first have a short introduction of Tai-Hu, one of the largest freshwater lakes in China.

Covering an area of over 2,250 square km (about the size of 300,000 times of a football field), Tai (great)-hu (lake) is the third largest freshwater lake of China, below in size of Lakes Poyang and Dongting, situated about 100 km from the east coast of the Chang Jiang delta 长江三角洲 in central China. The whole lake is under the administration of Jiangsu Province 江苏省, though its southern coast belongs to the neighboring province, Zhejiang 浙江. It is located in the densely populated fertile plain of the delta known for its complicated network of small lakes, ponds, streams and man-made canals, including the Grand Canal 京杭大运河 built in the 7th century to connect Beijing 北京 with Hangzhou 杭州 in Zhejiang. The inflowing water comes mainly from mountains to the west and southwest of the lake, while the draining rivers start mostly from the east coast of the lake. Several rivers and channels connect the lake with Chang Jiang 长江, but the water flux is controlled by dams to maintain the lake water level within a range of fluctuation of 2-3 meters. The lake is famous for its abundant production of fishes and crabs, and the aquaculture farms on the coast that apply skillful techniques. In addition to supporting heavy boat traffic, Tai-Hu provides some of the best known water- side scenery in China for domestic and foreign sightseeing visitors.

After taking the 32路‘公交’(public bus) from 海关大楼 (my SuZhou 苏州 hostel), I need to travel on the 91路‘公交’ for another full hour from 木渎，another SuZhou famous tourist spot to my final destination - XiShan. During the journey, the bus have to drove over 3 bridges of a few kilometers long each in order to cross Tai-Hu. I wanted to take some photos of the bridges and the lake but the bus was too crowded even for me to take out my digicam.

Here I am, standing on the hill top of ShiGong Hill 石公山, one the many tourist spots on XiShan island. I even can't see the other end of the lake after standing so high on the hill, imagine how big the lake is.

This is taken on the other side of the hill. There are about 90 islands on Tai-Hu and I am sitting on the hill top of ShiGongShan in XiShan, located on the largest island on Tai-Hu. For your information, Tai-Hu is actually the important water source for large cities such as Shanghai City, Wuxi City, Suzhou City (Jiangsu province) and Huzhou City (Zhejiang province), and the residents living diffusely around the lake. The water of about 1,050 million cube meters has been supplied to several million residents throughout a year as municipal water. This is how important Tai-Hu to the people around here.

Next destination - 'Secret Island' 神秘岛, a tiny island situated not far away from XiShan island. I don't really know why it is named 'secret island', all I have been told is that there are some peacocks on the island and so some people called it as 'KongQue' Island 孔雀岛。

But to my dispointment, instead of peacocks, I saw a few swans and a dead peacock (how can it be called 'KongQueDao'). Luckily the scenery and the breeze there is quite interesting, so it is still worth a trip.

A few don't know is swans or ducks swimming happily in Tai-Hu.

Behind me is the 'Secret Island' 神秘岛, a very small island. Can walk around the island along the wooden bridge built surrounded it in less than 30 minutes. There are a few 'wind-generators' on the island. I think it is to generate electric power for the usage on the island. The scene looks a bit like Netherland. Hehe...

After spending sometime walking and looking through the market in XiShan, which is famous with its pearl and local fruits, it is time to say goodbye to this magnificent lake of China.