Day 8: Quanzhou

We had breakfast with a few thousand other travelers.  It was not as enjoyable as our hotel yesterday!  Then we drove to Quanzhou.  Our first stop was at the Anping bridge.  This bridge was built in 1138 and when it was completed, it was the longest bridge in the world until 1905. 

At the bridge's heyday, a swift current ran under it.  These triangular piers helped to break up the rushing waters.  The land has silted in and has changed to marsh.

As we walked along them we wondered how they got the heavy granite planks.  (We learned in a museum later, they floated them to the building site.)  We could still see chisel marks on some of them.

There were a few fishermen spreading their nets.

Karl giving an impromptu lecture.

A quiet street in Quanzhou.

We had another lunch of local specialties.

After lunch, we went to the Quanzhou Maritime Museum, which seemed to emphasize the multi-cultural aspects of Quanzhou.  Quanzhou was on the Silk Maritime Route and consequently had a large Muslim population.  When we were here last year, the Muslim section of the museum wasn't open, but we visited it this time.

Our tourist bus made us feel like the Partridge family!

Our last stop for the day was to visit Mount Qingyuan, a national park with this famous statue of Laozi.  Laozi is thought to be a contemporary of Confucius, but scholars do not agree that he is really a historical figure.  He is considered to be the father of Taoism.

They take care of their trees in this park.  This one was was on an IV!

We checked into our hotel and then walked to our dinner, which was in an old house.

It wasn't heated, but the food kept us warm.  We ate in the concubines' quarters.

The entrance to the restaurant.  We had a de-brief in our room (another large one) to end our day.