Jiujiang

After 12 hours train I arrived at Jiujiang of Jiangxi Province from Beijing on Friday morning. The city, quite and small, lay along the Yangtze River, adjacent Hubei and Anhui. It's centered around two lakes: Nanmen ("southern gate") Lake and Gantang ("birchleaf pear") Lake. Every morning and evening there were many citizens walking or running, as well as a beautiful fountain with colorful lights.

Here's a shot of the Yangtze River near the Anti-blood Square in memory of those heroes in the year 1998.

Mt. Lushan were considered to be a great place but it was not. Bad weather, bad mood, crowds, leaders' visit, too many villas and disappointing scenes made it uncomfortable at all. There's nothing impressive, I'm afraid I have to say that. Maybe next time I should come again to stay several days around Lake Poyang, the largest freshwater lake in China, only one hour drive from Jiujiang city. Here's shot of the Sandie ("three steps") Fall, the largest fall in Mt. Lushan, though in my opinion it's quite small.

I also visited the White Deer Grotto Academy at the foot of Mt. Lushan, revived by Zhu Xi, a great neo-Confucian. I thought this place was more like a symbol of his philosophy that dominated Chinese culture for several centuries.