A Flushing Easter

I promised I would do a better job updating this blog and well, I haven't. It is much harder to keep up-to-date on than it was during Peace Corps, largely due to the fact that after work, PM and I want to just relax together and the blog seems like work right now. That said, I am going to try to get a few posts up from some of the day trips we have been taking.

First, I must say, I can't take credit for the title. After posting one of the photos here on Facebook, there was a sea of toilet related puns. So it is really my Facebook friends who I owe this one to.

A few weeks ago, a group of us went on a day trip to the city of Foshan. Foshan is Guangzhou's neighbor, but it still took about 45 minutes to get there as Guangzhou is huge. HUGE. What I knew about Foshan before we went: it is where a lot of ceramics are made and there is apparently a toilet bowl waterfall. PM and I had friends in town visiting, so we thought this day trip would be a great way for them to see a bit more of China and thankfully we had some awesome friends from work who were willing to arrange it all and accompany us.

So, what happens when you take eight Americans, one local Chinese driver (no way we were going to drive ourselves), and nine hours in a rental van? Well....

Our first stop was in the ancient village area. This village was known for martial arts (hence the red men). It is also famous for its kiln. The bottom right picture is when PM decided to go wander into the kiln to see if there was anything fun to see. The kilns were built at an angle so the air would preheat the upper levels of the kiln.

The whole time we were exploring the ancient village, we kept asking where the toilets were. People were a bit confused and often pointed to the restroom, but finally, we emerged to this beautiful sight! It was pretty awesome. Over 10,000 toilets make up this magnificent work of art. The top left photo is our Happy Easter photo.

One of our final stops of the day was at a Taoist temple. We have been to quite a few temples and they all have some of the same elements, they also are always fascinating and a lot of fun to see. This one was no exception.

Our night ended with us standing on a street corner, several people eating ice cream, calling and calling for our driver to come pick us up. After about 40 minutes, he finally answered his phone and we were on our way home. It was a fantastic trip and we all decided we need to plan more in the future.