Five-Spring Mountain Park

On Tuesday morning, Aug. 26 we visited the Five-Spring Mountain Park in Lanzhou. There is no more Chinese paperwork for us to do. There are still some for the Chinese officials and our guide to finish. Cheif of these is Trent's Chinese passport. That takes about five days so it's the main reason we need to stick around Lanzhou. While we are waiting the guide will show us some of the local sights. Today it is this park.

The local legend is that a Chinese general was sent to this region to scout things out and fight the nomads. The water from the Yellow river was not acceptable so he poked his spear in the gound five times and springs came out from the spear holes.

Here is the entrence to the park.

We encountered several locals practicing Chinese yo-yo's (also known as 'diabolos'). They tried to teach Connie, Linda, and Grandpa how to do them, with a big emphasis on try. Connie and Linda did buy a couple of the yo-yo's.

Next we saw a woman practicing kung-fu, not the movie type. She gave us a demonstration with a folding fan.

There was a Buddist temple in the middle of the park. It was interesting seeing the monks, the statues, and a large container for burning incense.

The final place in the park was a zoo. It had most of the typical animals, but in addition had a real live panda. At least we assumed it was alive. When we visited, he was sleeping and not in a very flashy position as you can see from the picture.

For lunch, we ate at a beef noodle restaraunt. One of the appetizer was yak meet. It did not taste like chicken, more like beef. We had the afternoon free to rest and relax back at the hotel.