DREAMING

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong 8 - 17 Dec 2010 From Yichang country in Hubei, we took more than 6 long tiring hours to reach the famous UNESCO World Heritage site - Zhangjiajie! Snow was falling and the temperature drops, further exacerbated by the rain. The temperature plunged to zero degrees in no time as we solider on. The long winding road we were on was soon covered by a thick blanket of white. The rooftops and roadside shrubs greenery were not longer green but coated with a layer of snow. Upon reaching the town-like village, it dawned upon us that this indeed a tourist resort favoured by the visiting Koreans. Signage and road directions were displayed prominently in Chinese and Korean. Hotels and guest houses dotted the skyline after this place was renamed Zhangjiajie in 1994. Zhangjiajie was formerly known as Dayong city, founded in 1988. As Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is increasingly becoming world famous, Dayong city was renamed as Zhangjiajie city under the permis...

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong 8 - 17 Dec 2010 An arduous journey. A journey through ancient times. A memorable one, nonetheless. Year 2010 ended with a journey of trekking across rivers, rails and air. My family, the whole entourage (from eight to sixty years old), went for a 10-day unforgettable tour from mid-to- southern China spanning more than 2000 km, from the world largest metropolis, Chongqing, to the southernmost Avatar-inspired ZhangJiaJie in Hunan, to Guangzhou and Shenzhen near Hong Kong. The ever-winding majestic Yangtze, the 3rd longest river in the world, of more than 6000km, menders and blenders in our minds after we returned to Singapore. Since time immemorial, this ancient river has seen its shares of great floods, social upheaval, feudal wars, and certainly, the rise and fall of dynasties. The famous Red Cliff battle during the Three Kingdom era was fought at this very river. To us tourists, the ancient war-trodden paths left by the great armies...