For quite a while, I’ve been wanting to go to Longquan, a city of 252,000 people located about 4.5 hours southeast of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Why Longquan? They’re famous for kilns that make Longquan celadon porcelain:
Longquan celadons were an important part of China’s export economy for over five hundred years, and were widely imitated in other countries, especially Korea and Japan. Their demise came after they were overtaken in their markets by blue and white porcelain from Jingdezhen. (Wikipedia)
I’ve seen celadon all over Asia (in shops and museums in Singapore, Japan, and Korea), and it’s pretty stuff. I wanted to see where it came from. So that was the first destination on our family road trip.
See below for 21 photos taken on the road to Longquan.
Zhejiang Mountains
Now that I live in a country that’s not an island measuring 31 miles by 16 miles (*cough cough* Singapore), I can much more easily experience my favorite type of natural scenery: mountains!
Mountains!
Rest Stop
Rest stop in Dongyang, Jinhua, Zhejiang
Okay, so if you ever want to feel like a celebrity, here’s what you do:
Be a non-East Asian individual. Or group.
Go to a highway rest stop in China.
Heads will turn. Enjoy being stared at!
We used the toilets. We bought iced coffee. We walked up and down the hallway and drank it. We ignored everybody. But they didn’t ignore us!
No, but seriously… In my experience, Zhejiang has really nice rest stops. They’re like mini shopping malls with several fast food restaurants (some Chinese and some Western), a convenience store, gift and clothing stores, a coffee shop, and even a fresh fruit stall. (On another trip, we stopped at one that had a bookstore!!!) The bathrooms are large and fairly clean, and they have Western-style toilets. And there are English signs.
That being said, the English isn’t always perfect! Here are some amusing language fails I noticed at the Dongyang rest stop.
This sign over the sink says “Carefully scalds”. That’s because it’s hard to translate “xiao xin” (literally, “small heart”, meaning “[be] careful”), the phrase you stick in front of whatever it is that might be dangerous (frequently, a slippery floor).Another attempt at a warning: “Carefully slide”! Also a reminder to “Please keep your belongings”. Especially briefcases full of Chinese cash, apparently… although as far as I can tell, nobody EVER uses Chinese cash anymore; we use phone apps.Yeah actually there’s nothing wrong with this sign, which says “TRASH CAN”. It’s just that, having lived in Singapore so long, I expected it to say “RUBBISH BIN”. The non-Britishness took me by surprise.“Real-time fried fast food”. I think they mean “freshly prepared”, but the sign sounds like it was translated by a computer scientist. And no, that’s not the name of the restaurant, that’s just the tagline or whatever. The name is the three big characters on the right.“Frie Extinguisher”. Oh but also the sign says (too small to see): “Please love fire contral facilities”. The Chinese text literally says “love”. I think they mean “take care of” or “don’t abuse” the fire control equipment and services? I think the six steps of instructions for using the “fire-fighting hydrant” are a little odd too, but I didn’t get a good photo of them.
Infrastructure
China’s infrastructure is amazing. So much has been built, all within the last thirty or forty years. And they’re still building. Case in point:
I think it’s a train trestle.The sign that looks like it says PRIX is a set of icons for a rest stop that offers parking, gas, car repair, and food. This one says we’ve almost reached the one in Lishui.
Clouds and Mountains
I mean, you don’t usually get mountains without clouds, and I love clouds too.
So pretty. And this is just the beginning!
(Mom’s photo.)(Mom’s photo.)
Arriving at Longquan
Giant blue-green vase! It would seem Longquan knows what it’s famous for, LOL.There are several large tiled objects in the center of the main street.
Longquan Nanguo Garden Hotel
We stayed at Longquan Nanguo Garden Hotel. It was cheaper than the Wyndham on the other side of the river, which looked new and shiny (and boring). This place was fine. And hey, English sign pointing to the lobby!Parking in the courtyard.We had rooms on the third floor.The rooms had centralized lighting controls. Okay, and get this, the curtains are electrically controlled too! The buttons (second set from the left) say “Curtain ON” and “Curtain OFF”! It’s a common mistake in Chinese to use “open” and “close” (literal translations) for “on” and “off”, but… for curtains, “open” and “close” would have been correct! Meanwhile, the switch that turns off all the lights at once says “Always Close”. Close, but no cigar! And no smoking the bed please.
Dinner and walk beside the river
We found a restaurant that serves Western food. (Kinda spicy though.)Lovely riverside atmosphere.Wow Chef RestaurantAfter dinner, we walked along the river.Cool bridge.Cool roof.There’s an island in the middle of the river, which we saw again on another day.
