16. Rocks And Sands of ChangSa
ChangSa is a major city in the province of Hunan. It is in the north eastern end of the province. The name ChangSha literally means 'long on sand'. While I do not know if the city is named for its sands, I thought it may be fun to see what ChangSa offers in rocks and sands.
This is a street scene in a typical weekday afternoon. Even for a mid-size city in China, the streets are already filled with vehicles. When we were there, the city was going through its drought season, not much rain, and hence, everywhere one looks, it indeed looks sandy and you can almost breathe the sand in your nostrils. But there is also a very nice downtown with a pedestrian mall.
We visited one of the oldest university in the world and it is called Yue Lu Su Yuan 岳麓书院. This is where famous Chinese scholars once studied and taught. For example, Zhu Xi 朱熹, a 12th century AD Song Dynasty scholar, was a resident here. And in the courtyard is a large stone shown here. It is a specimen of the locally quarried stone - a chrysanthemum stone. The flower patterns are natural and are the imprints from petrified vegetation. This piece is very expensive if it is offered for sale. Also, Yue Lu is the seventh oldest university in the world (with Cambridge being the oldest) and the current Hunan University is its direct descendent.
Then of course, since ChangSa is located on the banks of Xiang Jiang, the Xiang River, I've got to show a photo of the sandy beach on the river. The east bank of the Xiang river has been set aside for a park and that is where this photo was shot. No, we didn't sail on that sightseeing boat.
Next stop, ChengDu and onto JiuZaiGou!
This is a street scene in a typical weekday afternoon. Even for a mid-size city in China, the streets are already filled with vehicles. When we were there, the city was going through its drought season, not much rain, and hence, everywhere one looks, it indeed looks sandy and you can almost breathe the sand in your nostrils. But there is also a very nice downtown with a pedestrian mall.
We visited one of the oldest university in the world and it is called Yue Lu Su Yuan 岳麓书院. This is where famous Chinese scholars once studied and taught. For example, Zhu Xi 朱熹, a 12th century AD Song Dynasty scholar, was a resident here. And in the courtyard is a large stone shown here. It is a specimen of the locally quarried stone - a chrysanthemum stone. The flower patterns are natural and are the imprints from petrified vegetation. This piece is very expensive if it is offered for sale. Also, Yue Lu is the seventh oldest university in the world (with Cambridge being the oldest) and the current Hunan University is its direct descendent.
Then of course, since ChangSa is located on the banks of Xiang Jiang, the Xiang River, I've got to show a photo of the sandy beach on the river. The east bank of the Xiang river has been set aside for a park and that is where this photo was shot. No, we didn't sail on that sightseeing boat.
Next stop, ChengDu and onto JiuZaiGou!
posted by thisandthat at
6:34 AM
1 Comments:
I have now discovered that indeed the city 'ChangSha = Long Sand' was named after the long sand bar in the middle of the Xiangjiang (the Xiang river). This sand bar is named Jiuzizhou (~ Tangerine Island) and is just across from where the fishermen's are in the last photo.
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