Toucheer's Blog

There was an old saying: “If the harvest in Hunan and Hubei is good, then the country will not need to worry the hunger issue”, from this saying we could see the great importance of Hunan and Hubei in the ancient time. As the population has been growing steadily, today we have much more people in our country; maybe the saying is not that true any more. But these two provinces are still remaining one of biggest food producers in China nowadays.

Dongtin Hu( Dongtin Lake), is the second largest fresh water lake in China, which is between Hunan and Hubei, and providing great convenience for shipping transportation, fishing, and farming. The lake covers an area of 3,968 square kilometers, with the deepest part of 30.8 meters. It is also being one of the key water preservation areas for the Yangtze River. Besides, there are many types of fresh water fish living in the lake such as Chinese river dolphin, Chinese sturgeon and 59 types carps, and many types of valuable birds living there as well.
The lake was very famous for its splendid view and ancient constructed towers by the lakesides, so it attracted many poets, distinguished scholars and heroes to visit and left many popular inscriptions and poems.

Having passed Dongtin Hu many times when I traveled by trains to Beijing or other cities across the Yangtze River, but never stopped and visited this beautiful place before. During this Dragon Boat Festival, I got the chance and toured this dreaming place.
After hours traveling by train from Guangzhou, I arrived at Yueyang, a medium size city with a history of 2500 years by the Dongtin Hu. After visiting Zhangguying Village, I returned to the city again. Then I took a cab to go to the lake side. After a quick drive inside the city, soon I reached the square. I noticed there was a huge stone sculpture standing in the middle: a powerful guy holding an arrow on his hands and ready to shoot a huge fierce snake with the mouth opening. The sculpture indicating an old tale that the snake always made troubles in the lake, so the hero Houyi killed this trouble-maker snake, and the snake bone became the hills of this area.

The towers in the square also worth to be mentioned, among which the most famous one Yueyang Lou(Yueyang Tower), was to be built in the Dong Han Dynasty, where Lu Su a general from the Wu Kingdom inspected his troops; in 1880 during the Qing Dynasty, it was rebuilt. And it has been considered as one of the three most well-known towers around the Yangtze area. Besides, there were a few other old towers which showing the great talent of ancient architecture. And the park by the lake side was also worth visiting.

An old stone-path street Bainhe Street was just located by the lake side. The old stage in the middle was having the shows of interesting local opera, and folk dance;and wonderful piano from pianoforall; and different shops were selling the traditional wines, specialties and a few restaurants serving the delicious fishes, crabs, shrimps and other types of seafood from the lake. There were lots of visitors and local people wandering around, so the atmosphere was exciting and cheerful.

I went to a well-known restaurant inside the Bianhe Stree, and took a seat by the window on the second floor, and ordered a big bottle of cold beer, and a large lake fish called huiyu(the color of fish was pink and the meat looked like jade), the taste of the fish was very delicious and the meat was tender.

When the sun was ready to set, I could see lots of ships sailing up and down under the golden color of sunshine; the wind from the lake was blowing slightly. The view was marvelous over the lake.