We woke up REALLY early (at 6.30am! considering that we only slept about 2.30am...yawnz...) in order to make it in time for our 8.40am ferry from Hong Kong Sheung Wan's（上环）港澳码头 (the same ferry pier where we arrived from Macau 2 days ago) to ZhuHai珠海.
We took our nice nice shower and then made our way to the ferry pier... Hee... and wow... The ferry (by the name of HaiZhu海珠, which literally means Pearl of the Sea) is really big and nice! It's bigger and more comfy than the ferry we took two days ago! Guess what we did the moment we got into our seats? No prizes for making the right guess! WE SLEPT!
After 70minutes, our ferry arrived at ZhuHai! We cleared the immigration rather quickly and was really looking out for Wei Qiao. When I finally spotted her, I ran up and hugged her! It's been quite a while since I last saw her and was I glad to see her again. Then after quite a long hug, I released my "grip" and Wei Qiao introduced us to her parents, Uncle David and Ah-Yi阿姨 (as we addressed her for the rest of the trip) and also to her cute little 3-year-old sister, Kelly 韦凯玉! She's so adorable! Aiyoh... reminds me of SzeHuei, my cousin.
Then, we loaded our things up to Uncle's Honda Odyssey and we were off to have morning tea （饮茶）... It's a Hong Kong/ Macau/ ZhuHai culture to have morning tea on weekends... either with their families or friends. It's a time when they have dim sum （点心）and chat and catch up with one another's lives. It was a good 饮茶session as we got to know the family better.
We left the chinese restaurant with satisfied stomachs and Uncle brought us on a drive （游车河）to show us parts of ZhuHai. And it is so modern, and the apartments are really lovely.
We then proceeded to QiaoQiao's (hee... thought it's a really cute pet name and began calling her that for the rest of the trip. Hee...) home. Woah! It is really big... The term for it is 楼中楼, loosely translated into meaning a building within a building. And were we impressed! Xiuyue and I were shown to our guestrooms on the first level. Yes, we had a guestroom each, and a Queen-sized bed too! Cool surprise... and really great! We finally will have room to roll around on our beds (especially after our 2 nights in the Cosmic guest room where our beds do not allow us to roll around at all... haa...)!!! We dropped our stuffs and little Kelly excitedly came and showed us the rest of the house. Nice...
When Kelly got down to her afternoon nap, Ah-Yi brought us to MeiXi Torii aka MeiXi Stone Archways （梅溪牌坊）where the brochure claimed "Give me two hours, I'll return you two hundred years of ZhuHai history". And I really do think the two hours is well-spent!
The place is so rich in history that I just can't get enough!
梅溪牌坊 occupies an area of 126,000 square metres (yes, it's big) and the attraction includes the former residence of Mr Chen Fang （陈芳）who is the 1st Chinese consul to Hawaii during the later part of the Qing Dynasty (and Chen Fang also married the cousin of the Hawaiian ruler), and the torri or stone archways that were presented to Chen Fang by GuangXu Emperor.
What really caught my attention was the architecture of the residence... the many halls (living areas for different members of the family), the interesting fusion of East and West architecture (at the back of Chen Fang's hall is a ballroom where he met with his guests and the ballroom is just so European and the tiles and bricks were imported from Hawaii!)... Just so many! And one of the exhibits blew my mind off. It's this whole collection of models of Stone Archways across China! The different styles, the different looks, the different materials used in the southern and the northern parts of China. The various styles that informs the public of one's contributions and rank... I was so soaked in it... and I took loads of photos and I told Xiuyue that I'm going to show my students all these photos and just let them see the richness of chinese culture...
After spending a few hours at 梅溪牌坊,we returned home and had an afternoon tea of bread and chinese tea.
Shortly after, Uncle drove us to a little village in the countryside where we watched men fishing... and then selling the fishes to the restaurant just beside the fishing area! Hee... We had fish, chicken, beef, vegetables (oh.. the vegetables are so fresh! So green, so crisp, so sweet! And it's freshly plucked from the patch of vegetable farm just behind the restaurant!) and the list goes on...
Stomach's really elated! So much yummy food in one day! Then Ah-Yi brought us to the shopping mall where Xiuyue was excitedly looking for the S$100+ touchscreen mobile phone that her friends told her about. She returned empty-handed but Ah-Yi promised to being her to the Underground Mall （地下商场）the next day... where she could get great deals.
Then we got back home and watched the Golden Horse Awards Ceremony（金马奖颁奖礼）till rather late at night. Then we snoozed...
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