It was raining this
morning when we got up and we walked with our umbrellas up to the
McDonald's for breakfast. As we ate, we spotted a little information
booth on the edge of the square outside the restaurant, so when we
had finished eating, we walked over to get a little information. Kate
had seen some advertisements for a 'panda park' that was apparently
in the area, but our online searches had yielded very little useful
info (such as where it was, how to get there and whether or not they
actually had any live pandas) and the woman at the front desk of our
hotel wasn't very helpful either – mostly just trying to sell us a
tour. The young woman in the information booth was much better
informed – she gave us all the relevant details for getting there
and even bought us some discounted tickets online (although they were
still eye-wateringly expensive). There was a slight problem with
actually getting hold of the tickets – no printer; no mobile phone
– but she gave us a piece of paper with some Chinese characters on
it and told us that if we showed this to the attendants, all would be
okay.
While all this was
going on, it was still raining pretty steadily. We had planned to do
another village visit, but with the weather being so miserable we
decided to just hang around Huangshan. Sarah needed some shorts, so
Kate took the girls off clothes shopping while I went back to the
hotel to get a bit of work done. We met up again at 12.30pm and went
in search of a fried dumpling stall that the others had stumbled
across during their shopping trip. Unfortunately, not one of the
three of them could remember where it actually was, and we spent a
good half hour walking around in circles looking for it. Just as we
were about to give up, Kate suggested that we try one more street and
there it was. The dumplings were a bit on the greasy side, but
otherwise delicious and we went back several times for more. Nearby,
we also found a funny little food market in an alleyway, with lots of
live fish and crustaceans and some nice looking fruit and veg. There
was also a guy making fresh noodles, stretching the dough out over
his head.
After lunch, we went
back to the room (stopping on the way to check out the guy with his pet turtle in the street and for a few tourists to take photos of the girls), then out to our new beer and cards venue, and
finally to our favourite restaurant for dinner.Afterwards, we walked to the river to check out the lasers shining over the city and the amazingly lit-up bridge over one of the other rivers.
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