Of course, it's not just one person; you know what I mean. Today is the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, and Nanhou Street is hosting a lantern exhibition. Speaking of these lanterns, I've seen them a few years ago. Weak burst... But this year, I'm not alone, so it wouldn't hurt to take a look. However, we seemed to have left a bit early, at 2 PM. So, according to the route, we could visit the West Lake. The mobile TV said that in this season of spring returning to the earth, for love, justice, and peace, there is a flower exhibition at the West Lake. It's not autumn now, so it's not chrysanthemums on display. Please don't make inappropriate associations. On the mobile TV, those flowers looked quite beautiful, especially the ornamental kale (which I learned about later from Baidu). Kale is the cabbage we often see in our daily lives. We usually eat its leaves, but who would have thought its flowers are so dignified and graceful, with a myriad of postures. Beautiful flowers must surely be liked by girls.
So we arrived at the West Lake. Ah! Rain or shine, it suits the scenery well, like Xishi before her marriage (from Xin Qiji's poem "Hart New Lang" during a rainy visit to the West Lake in Sanyan, yes, this poem was indeed written about Fuzhou's West Lake). Today is a sunny day! Everywhere is crowded with people! These are all details anyway, since admission to the West Lake is free now. Talking about this West Lake, my second date with the girl was also here. But this has nothing to do with others, so I don't need to say more. Revisiting the old place today truly makes one feel the beauty of life and the sweetness of love.
At the entrance, there were surging crowds, bustling and lively. There were many charming flowers in the flower beds on both sides of the road, some red, some pink, some yellow, very lovely. Hmm, they turned out to be tulips. However, I had seen on the bus earlier that the flower exhibition at the West Lake probably started around the Spring Festival. Now, after half a month, these fresh flowers have passed their most beautiful moments. Plus, the willow trees by the shore haven't sprouted new buds yet, looking withered and weak. Ah, this is the so-called withered branches and fallen leaves! Tulips have no fragrance, but their flower shapes are pleasing. Those tulips that have bloomed too much have scattered, no longer in the standard high-footed glass shape. These are all details.
After passing the bridge of faded flowers and broken willows, there was a huge flower bed. Oh! These flowers, I don't even recognize them! Microbiology and botany are still quite different! In the flower bed, there was a large dragon made of flowers, and many tourists posed strangely here. Turning to the back of the flower bed, I found the ornamental kale I had come to see, only a few pots, weak burst. The TV said that these flowers were often stolen, which seems to be true. But then again, these flower pots are so small, making them very convenient to steal. But I am such a cultured person, something like this is impossible for me to do. Beside the flower bed, I saw the big stone that says "West Lake Beauty." Oh, it's still here. If my childhood photo album is still around, there should be many photos of me near this stone. Ah, twenty-some years have passed, time is indeed a butcher's knife, turning cherries red and bananas green. What am I saying...
Walking past the giant dragon flower bed, there was a fountain pool with many fake monkeys. If I remember correctly, this pool should have been around when I was a child, but this thing doesn't seem to spout water frequently. There were many ornamental kales in the flower bed beside the fountain pool. Ornamental kale is also known as leaf peony. Its majestic-looking flowers, upon closer inspection, seem to be leaves. Who knows? I don't understand botany. But this flower is really very beautiful, and the people taking pictures around it are not stingy about giving it close-up shots. Hmm, it seems this flower has no fragrance. You know, beauty is sometimes overlooked in life. Looking at these beautiful flowers in front of me, if it weren't for the exposed leaves revealing their essence, I would really find it hard to associate them with the everyday cabbage. The flowers in the nearby small flower bed are sparse, obviously having been stolen many times.
Behind the fountain pool, there were two more flower beds. One shaped like a small house, the other shaped like a few Rubik's cubes. I was about to explore the Rubik's cube, but the girl directly pulled me to the small house side. Is this the difference between men and women's aesthetics? The small house is very handsome, so there were many people taking pictures around it. But the flowers next to it suffered a great misfortune. A path was even trampled out in the flower bed, allowing these completely aesthetically challenged tourists to get closer to the small house and take more impressive pictures. Seeing the red flowers and green leaves crushed into the soil, the girl and I both expressed our disdain for quality. Some people even picked the flowers in the flower bed and posed pretentiously as if they were blooming like flowers?! They clearly have no sense of public morality and don't understand the truth of beauty, weak burst. By the way, many of the flowers in front of the small house are narcissus flowers. It's exactly the time for narcissus to bloom, and they smell very nice.
There were only a few large flower beds, and we quickly finished viewing them. But it was still quite early for the lighting ceremony in Sanfang Qixiang Alley, so we continued to stroll around the West Lake. Along the shore were many tall trees. Because their bark is white and smooth, they might be the famous birches. However, almost every tree has "XXX was here" carved on it, ruining the view. We walked along the lake and arrived at the Lin Zexu Shrine. Outside the shrine were a few redbud trees (the sign on the tree said so, not that I suddenly became an expert), covered with parasitic fern plants. The girl said she felt a strange chill looking at them. And it seemed that these redbud trees had lost all their leaves, damaged by the parasites, and probably couldn't last long.
Continuing down the path, a small mountain appeared before us! Ah, isn't this the legendary Daming Mountain! There are dangerous large carnivorous beasts, pandas, lurking there, very scary! To tell the truth, it was a bit hot today. The afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, creating an indescribable oppressive heat. We were about to climb up when a pair of horses blocked the road ahead, truly a lone warrior blocking ten thousand troops! What am I saying! So we had to take a detour. Walking along, we reached the top. At the top was a pavilion, the Mengshan Pavilion. I didn't review the legends and anecdotes beforehand, so let it go. But a faint sound floated through the air, talking about mating and such lewd words. Oh, they're talking about pandas... The renowned Panda World is actually hidden within this Daming Mountain! We wanted to investigate further and found a ticket booth. It makes sense that serving pandas requires money. But we found that there wasn't a single person at the ticket booth, and the price was still marked at 15 yuan. Alright, we don't do that kind of thing, let's go down the mountain. To be honest, the age of those several pandas in Fuzhou's Panda World is about the same as mine. If converted to human years based on panda age, they are all around eighty or ninety years old. Alright, let's go down the mountain. Speaking of going down the mountain, it's much scarier than going up... I'm so scared... But the more afraid you are, the easier it is to have an accident. So naturally, I tripped, OH, SHIT!
Walking down the mountain, we found ourselves back at the Lin Zexu Shrine, how small this place is! So we went around again and decided to leave from the main gate. On the way, we saw the boat dock. The weather today looks perfect for boating, so indeed many people were queuing up, and you don't necessarily get a boat just by queuing! Definitely frustrating! Moreover, I just fell, so rowing the boat would be quite embarrassing. These are all details.
Alright, Redsun Gentlemen and Ladies, leaving the West Lake, it's just a fifteen-minute walk to Nanhou Street. As a native Fuzhou person, this renovated, proclaimed "famous cultural site," "Fuzhou tourism card" in my eyes is purely deceiving uninformed local tourists. Most of the buildings in Sanfang Qixiang Alley are newly constructed imitation ancient buildings, and all the old houses' residents have been driven out, without a trace of cultural atmosphere, only a strong stench of copper. Simply put: weak burst...
The lantern culture on Nanhou Street is genuine, I knew when I was very young that the handmade paper lanterns on Nanhou Street were very good and beautiful. Today's Nanhou Street, the streets on both sides are hung with various kinds of lanterns. All the shops along the street, whether coffee houses, craft stores, fish ball shops, meat loose shops, or even pawnshops, are selling lanterns today... But it's not yet time for the lanterns to be lit, just looking at the shapes of these lanterns is not impressive. Speaking of viewing lanterns, I've forgotten what the truly traditional and classical lantern fair on Nanhou Street used to look like. The first lantern fair after the renovation of Nanhou Street a few years ago was absolutely weak burst. There were only those floor-standing carousel lanterns along the street, with no other variety. This year, at least there are more varieties. No choice, "Nanhou Street Lanterns" are the last tourism ace here during the Spring Festival holiday. Whether you believe it or not, I actually believe it. Although it's not yet time for the lanterns to be lit, the crowd here is already incredibly dense. The girl said it's terrifying, so we took a detour through TAxing and went to rest at McDonald's under Dongbai Department Store. Speaking of McDonald's, there was no ice cream today, no cones, no McFlurry, no McCool either. So I asked the server, just tell me what you have today. Hmm, McDonald's slogan everyone knows is "I'm lovin' it." Actually, I once saw a picture where Heath Ledger's Joker character from "The Dark Knight" was dressed as Uncle M... So I wondered, if McDonald's slogan changed to "Why so serious?" wouldn't it be better...
The lantern fair on Nanhou Street a few years ago left me with a bad impression, but later I went to the Confucius Temple to guess riddles, which was wonderful and joyous. So I wanted to go there again today. When we finally reached the Confucius Temple from Dongbai Department Store, oh shit, it was closed, Confucius isn't receiving guests today... Alright, let's go back to Nanhou Street.
But it's still quite early until the lanterns are lit. Moreover, Nanhou Street is packed with people like rice, definitely no place to rest. Since that's the case, let's go up Wushan Mountain and find a random pavilion to rest.
When the twilight of late winter and early spring slowly turns the clear sky blue-black, the streetlights turn on first... the lanterns aren't lit yet... The Japanese ramen shop next to Lin Zexu's former residence on the road is doing brisk business, I wonder what Lin would think if he knew. Seeing that the night is as dark as Ao Guanhai's face, the girl had to ask a roadside peacekeeper about the lighting time, okay, it's 18:30, so we have to keep wandering. The lanterns in the roadside lantern shops are really ugly, I have no particular fondness for Lazy Sheep and his friends. But there are still traditional lotus lanterns, handmade, priced at RMB 30, completely different from the prices I remembered...
As the clock strikes 18:30, the two huge dragon lanterns at the intersection of Nanhou Street light up, and cheers erupt from the surrounding crowd. Alright, the real lantern festival has begun. First of all, the two dragons at the intersection must be mentioned. Honestly, these two dragons are pretty dominant, one red and one yellow, playing with pearls, very eye-catching in the night. The onlookers quickly pull out their phones, cameras, digital cameras, KFC, um, something weird seems to have mixed in. But to be honest, there are really, really, really a lot of people!! Earlier when we rested on Wushan Mountain, we heard military slogans from below. Thinking about it, such places with large crowds require a considerable number of security personnel to maintain order. The armed police officers line up into walls of people, dividing Nanhou Street into two sides, asking tourists to walk on the right. The tourists flow like a river, while they stand firm, their dominance evident. Honestly, they protect the entire order of the lantern festival, but they have to stand for hours in such a monotonous manner, which is quite admirable.
Alright, since the main purpose is to enjoy the lanterns, everything else is detail issues. Regarding today's lanterns, wow, they are truly dazzling. A few days ago, I was teaching the girl how to play Plants vs Zombies, so today she pointed at the very pirated pea shooters on the wall and smiled silently. Then there were many fruit-shaped lanterns on the trees, and we had a friendly and harmonious discussion about whether a certain design was cherry or loquat. This being the year of pregnancy, no, the Renchen Year, dragon designs are naturally indispensable. Besides the two mighty and dominant dragons at the intersection, there are also some cartoonish little dragons hanging on both sides of the street, but honestly, their designs are ugly beyond measure! Then in the middle of the road above, there are patterns made of small colored lights, mainly two: one is a huge bowl of glutinous rice balls, the other is a dragon and phoenix presenting auspiciousness, located at each entrance respectively. The phoenix in the dragon-phoenix presentation is very beautiful, but I reserve judgment on the dragon... Each lane in Sanfang Qixiang has lanterns, for example, there's a lantern pagoda at the entrance of Ta Lane. So the girl said, there must be an official hat at the entrance of Langguan Lane, but it turned out to be a bunch of things that look like carrots... The huge and depressing carousel lanterns I saw a few years ago are gone. Judging from what I glimpsed in others' digital camera viewfinders, the appearance of these lanterns in photos is somewhat distorted compared to what is seen with the naked eye. How to put it, they look more brilliant in photos, but more vivid when seen with the naked eye. I wonder if you can understand what I mean...
There are really too many people enjoying the lanterns, we were practically pushed to the exit by the tide of people. Looking at the endless stream of people entering at the exit, we both feel relieved that we came early, otherwise it would be even more crowded later. The bus stop still has a large number of tourists joining the lantern-viewing army, with half or even a whole carload of people getting off each time, making one feel quite worried. But this is good, at least we won't have to squeeze when we go back. This is indeed a cause for celebration!
Hmm, basically, that's it.