|
The air is fresh and the water is clean, despite a recent mine explosion that threatened to flood the lake with lead. The only congestion to be found is on Xiu Shui Jie, or "Silk Street", where locals douse strangers with buckets of fresh water as part of an ongoing festival.
Qiandaohu, or Thousand Island Lake, revolves around a township of 45,000 people. It lies about a five-hour drive from Shanghai on the other side of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, but presents itself as a world apart from both.
Called po shui jie in Chinese, the water festival occupies the evenings like a less-riotous version of Thailand's Songkran celebrations. Borrowed from the Dai minority, the festival has become this season's main selling point and will end along with China's san fu (hot) season on September 6.
The water-sprinkling festival vies with rafting, island-hopping, scenic walks through China's biggest state park and "dancing fish", which leap out of the water when hauled up by fishermen's nets, for visitors' attention.
At night, Mu opera shows, "jumping bamboo horse" performances and other forms of local entertainment haul in the crowds. Many of these performaces originate from Muzhou culture.
Big city nightlife, or any reference to it, is noticeably absent. You need to dig hard to turn up a karaoke bar and most visitors seem content to retire to their hotels when the sun goes down. Others feast on freshwater fish and ostrich egg omelets at lakeside restaurants. The lake holds over 85 species of fish, making it one of the province's top suppliers.
For our party, the highlight of the weekend's feasting was not what we ate, but where: inside thatched huts perched on poles above swirling black waters. The "restaurant", which we accessed by pulling a rope-drawn raft, had no name.
One of the plus points of venturing to Qiandaohu is that it lets you choose your own adventure. You can elect to stay in the comfort of the five-star Kaiyuan Hotel, perched atop a hillock overlooking pristine islands. Alternatively, you can decamp to the hinterlands, as we did, for a fraction of the 1,000-yuan-a-night cost.
Our guesthouse provided more than comfortable lodgings, twin beds, a TV and a lakeside view for 80 yuan. It was nestled 10 kilometers out of town next to China's premier training center for its national water-sports athletes.
 |
Previous article: Ancient fortress of Longli, Guizhou |
 |
Next article: Nothing |
