Day 13- Taizhou

Today started with the very kind invitation from Sophia who welcomed us into her home where we spent a lovely couple of hours enjoying coffee, delicately made club sandwiches, cake and fruit. Sophia kindly showed us around her beautiful home, and Catherine even got to play the piano and listen to a recording of Sophia’s daughter playing Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, which was very inspiring. Catherine was given a copy of the piece to take home and enjoy playing 🎹 🎵

After our goodbyes, Lawrence took us to Tai Shan Park, his favourite and the oldest in Taizhou which is about a 45 minute walk away (a very nice walk too!) Just before the park, we walked through a square where a large group were having photos taken in front of the national flag. Catherine offered to take the photo so they could all be in it - they were delighted and even more so when we agreed to have our picture taken with them - these random moments we have with people of China are very entertaining and makes us feel very united 🥰

The park itself, offered some very impressive sculpted clay pictures as well as some very picturesque scenery.

Out of the park and onto the Mei Lanfang Historic Museum. Mei Lanfang is famous for the Peking Opera. It is a small museum, that presents the life of Mei Lanfang in a very demonstrative and interesting way.

After the museum we had a walk to Peach Park where we stopped for refreshments by the lake which we walked a couple of evenings ago with all the lit up bridges.

We took a leisurely walk back to our hotel via Old Street (another one full of market stalls and street food) which was pretty quiet during the day (great not be dodging the scooters!), but would come to life later.

We had a good couple of hours relaxation time before meeting up with Lawrence again later for our last evening meal together. Glad rags on, we headed back to Old Street, this time in a taxi 😊

The restaurant, Nashan Yi Banquet was tucked away behind Old Street in yet another very magical setting. We were greeted at the entrance and were enchanted by a young lady performing a dance for us. We had a private dining area and were served duck, which was carved just outside our dining area with the lit up waterfall in the background. With the duck came pancakes followed by crispy shrimp, stir fried vegetables, pork ribs and potatoes in a spicy sauce, a side dish of pickled celery and fish soup with noodles - all very kěkǒu de (delicious) - pronounced how-che (we’ve had lots of fun trying to get right pronunciations! 😂).

We took a leisurely stroll back to walk off our dinner for an early-ish night ready for our 5am alarm! ⏰

It’s been such a special time in Taizhou with Lawrence who has been the perfect host and tour guide. We can truly appreciate why Lawrence loves it here so much - Taizhou will hold a very special place in our hearts ♥️Read more