Our tour guide says any lake located at the west side of the city is call 西湖. So, China got a lot of west lake. :p 潮州西湖 is basically a small park and a place where oldies come for their morning exercise.

Today we will be staying at 汇侨大酒店. The hotel doesn't look as grand and there are some renovation works going on too.

The rooms however has a modern setting although it seems kinda small. The only complain I have is probably the toilet flooring which is too slippery. Denver even had a slip and fell in the bath area. :( Other than that, the carpeting and interior looks new and refreshing.

View of Chaozhou city from our hotel room.

Father-in-law's tummy has not been feeling good since morning... probably due to the food we ate yesterday that is causing the consistent diarrhea. Bbil took him to find a doctor but only manage to find a Chinese physician after a long search. On the other hand, the children didn't ate much during lunch and has been indulging on the cup noodles which we brought along with us.

While my in-laws are resting in their room, Bbil's family and us venture out to the streets. It was still drizzling (sigh).... and we walked around to see what we'll find. Hubby had a slip and fell, cutting his knee. (nothing serious luckily).

We finally saw a small fast food shop and walk in to buy more food for the kids. Seems to be pretty cheap too!

It's really scary to cross the roads over here... even with the traffic lights, it doesn't help at all. We are at a junction and the traffic just turns green.... to my surprise, the cars can still drive past us even as we are crossing!!! Lesson of the day - always watch both sides before crossing... even when the traffic is green for the pedestrians! The cars doesn't seem to be keen to give way to us at all. So, we really need to judge well, pick a good chance and cross quickly. The adults also have to hold on tightly to their children. Everytime we need to cross a road, the kiddos will complain... "Not Again!"

We walked all the way back to the hotel to rest. I'm starting to get tired with the rainy weather. Body is aching and my sandals are wet.
Dinner is at another resturant and more food... I'm also feeling really fat as the days passed.. nine course Chinese lunch and dinner everyday.

We signed up for the 潮州夜景 tour in the night. Since we'll probably be stuck around the hotel and there's nothing better much to do. hehhe.
It wasn't raining as heavily but there are still some drizzling. Still, we can do without the brolly. The tour bus took us to 潮州金山大桥 for some night shots while my inlaws rest in the bus.

Earlier in the morning, we went to visit 湘子桥, now we are outside the 古城 and took a walk inside. It looked different in the night compared to the day. The ancient walls are brightly lighted (金碧辉煌）and still looked magnificent.

On top of the city walls...

On the city walls, there are markings to indicate the level of flooding in the past years.

湘子桥 in the night.

Next stop is 潮州人民广场 (People's Square).

潮州市人民广场占地面积 12.73公顷。是集市政、休闲、旅游、文化为一体的多功能多层次的大众文化中心。夜幕降临，广场华灯亮起，清泉、流水、喷泉、乐曲，构成了一幅优美绚丽的图画。

Hubby has a craving to taste the fried chicken from the local KFC. Everytime when we travel overseas, we'll make an attempt to try it. So far Hubby loves the one from Thailand best. Since there are not many KFC outlets, our tour guide took us to a nearby shopping mall near 人民广场.

KFC! One of the fewer outlets we saw in Shantou, Jieyang and Guangzhou so far. Final verdict. Still the one in Singapore taste better. :D

Different menu, different taste. But still as good and it's a different treat.

Chaozhou-Shantou - Day 4 (Part 1) to be continued......

3rd June - Day 3 and we are leaving Jieyang to Chaozhou today. Breakfast at the hotel was bad. Not sure what happened... by 715am there isn't any food yet. -__- Even by 8am, not all the dishes are served. The variety was also very minimal. Still, I managed to grab some bread, eggs and noodles to keep my stomach full..

Group photos before leaving Temeisi Hotel.

After completing our visits to the relatives, the subsequent days are left for touring around. We headed down to 潮州 and our first stop is 湘子桥 （广济桥）.

湘子桥位于潮州古城的东门外，它是中国第一也是世界第一座启闭式桥梁，以其“十八梭船二十四洲”的独特风格与河北赵州桥，泉州洛阳桥，北京芦沟桥并称中国四大古桥。湘子桥全长500余米，东岸桥墩13座，西岸桥墩11座。由于“中流警湍尤深湘子桥，不可为墩”，中间只能用18只梭船并排构成一列横队，用铁索连成浮桥。每遇洪水或要通船，可解掉糸船铁索，移开梭船，变成开闭式浮梁桥。这就是“十八梭船廿四洲”的由来。

湘子桥横跨韩江两岸，24个桥墩，经历几百年风雨，依旧牢固如初，在古代生产力落后的情况下，在大江中建造这样一座大桥，其难度极大，故潮州民间有“仙佛造桥”的传说。

据说，湘子桥是韩湘子和广济和尚建造的。当年八仙巴凤凰山的石头化成猪群，争先恐后奔向江的东面。桥建到江心，石头便没有了，何仙姑将手中的莲花瓣化作18条木船，广济和尚抛下禅杖，化成大藤把18条船系住，这样，整条大桥就建成了。人们为了纪念仙佛合力造桥的功绩，便把此桥称为“湘子桥”，又叫“广济桥”。

桥上现在有一只铁牛，原来有两只，为镇水和栓系船只而铸造的，但是在一次大雷雨中，东桥的一只被雷电击落水中，故有民谣曰：“潮州湘桥好风流，十八梭船廿四洲，廿四楼台廿四样，两只生牛一只溜。”

This is a historical bridge with various interesting facts and myths. Unfortunately, it has been raining and we can only admire it with the raindrops. Tourist can choose to enter the bridge and walk on the 18 boats that makes the link to cross over the other side by paying an entrance fee of 60 yuan (~12.5 SGD). We didn't opt to do so since it was still rainy and it's a bit pricy for all the 10 of us to go! ($125SGD)!

Taking photos in the rain is another experience we had on this trip as it has been rainy most of the time so far. Gladys seems to be enjoying herself, taking her umbrella all the time and having her pink jacket on. The view should have been much better if not for the gloomy weather.

After getting drenched in the rain, it's time for some shelter and warm tea. We headed to a local shop specializing in selling Chaozhou's delights and food products. We bought a few boxes of goodies and that was our first buy so far.

This is known to be good for the eyes. Did I mention Denver & Gladys loves drinking Chinese Tea? Throughout the trip, they have been enjoying the various tea being served during our meals. :) 

After visiting a few shops, we went to 开元寺 and tour around.

Since morning, the rain doesn't seems to be interested to stop and rest. So, we can only confine ourselves for more photo-taking.

Today's lunch is a bit special as we'll be having our meal in a vegetarian resturant. This is the first time the kiddos are having vegetarian meal. The dishes looked very interesting but the children simply cannot appreciate the taste. LoL... They EEeeek and Yuuuck at the unique flavour and skip the meal this time round. Bread of snacks are more appealing to them.

Jieyang-Chaozhou - Day 3 (Part 2) to be continued....