大明湖 Da Ming Lake

DaMing Lake is an oasis! I didn't know what to expect after the amazing West Lake in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is the 'Tourist City' of China, so it's a little prettier than the rest of China. In Jinan, the Springs (namely, Baotu Spring), the Lake, and the Thousand Buddha Mountain are it's tourist sites. The Springs, as you saw were nice, but...I wouldn't have come to Jinan just to see them. We walked through and enjoyed the sights. I spent 5 hours at the Lake yesterday though...and I didn't even realise! It's really relaxing and beautiful. I met heaps of people too, they just came up and started talking to me! Most people can say hello and how are you, and then when they realise I can speak Chinese, they start speaking a lot...really fast! When I'm speaking to someone too, lots of others crowd around to hear me speak! When I don't pronounce something right, everyone giggles!

Here are some of the sights:

This is the little barge that you can catch to the islands in the middle.

This is how picturesque it is...This is a pavilion with lotus' on one side and the lake on the other, the smell of Jasmine in the air.

There are heaps of little red ribbons tied to the trees in this area.

They're hopes and wishes!! People buy a ribbon and write down their wish and tie it to the tree!

After walking around for hours, I went and sat outiside one of the gates to wait for a taxi. I'm sooo good looking that as I was sitting there, two guys came and asked if they could have photos with me!! I can't leave the house without Paul for protection against the papparrazi!! ;)

I ended up chatting with the guys for ages, they were from Xian and also tourists. They actually helped me with my chinese a bit. We learnt a lot, they kept saying they had 'chinese english' and I had to help them! It was a fun day!