Rapeseed Blossom

[milton]

Since it rained on the first day of QingMing holidays (清明, Chinese Memorial Day), I wasn’t planning on going out originally. Besides, most my Chinese riding buddies have done their rapeseed flower tours in last few weeks without me. Then on the second day of QingMing the sun came out shining gloriously. Not being able to resist it, I decided to ride my JH600 out towards AnHui to see if any rapeseed flowers left. The destination is ShiTan (石潭), famous for its beautiful scenery and panoramic display of rapeseed blossom.

First stop: Oriental Land (东方绿舟), 20KM outside of Shanghai Proper. Although a change of scene from Shanghai’s office buildings, shops, restaurants, bars and dreadful city traffic, these battleships and missiles are fakes.


After Oriental Land, the traffic thins out and the ride becomes more enjoyable.


I always take my first rest break at Dianshan Lake淀山湖. Believe it or not, this lake is named after a Shan (山，mountain). A friend of mine actually spent time looking for mountain Dian (淀山) and indeed found it right next to the lake somewhere, at the impressive height of about 20 meters. That “mountain” was not on my itinerary.


Official story about Dianshan Lake.



The town of Zhenze震泽 declares itself as the “historical culture town” and puts its name on this horrendous power station towering over guodao 318.



TaiPuHe (太浦河) is a canal connecting the great Tai lake (太湖) to Shanghai. It is usually a busy waterway, but not today on holidays. Rapeseed flowers made it much more pleasing than otherwise.







The first real “mountain” 100km west of Shanghai.



On the outskirt of Anji, a market of Anji white tea. This is a market for tea leaves freshly picked same day from the field. The tea processing plant collects them from farmers here. They are called chaqing（茶青）. White tea is highly valued green tea, retailed over 2000 RMB per half kilo for those produced before Chinese Memorial Day (清明节).


Note that they are all embryonic buds, picked by hand. White tea has the best "look" and color in comparison with other green teas, one of the important aspects of high-end teas.




After passing by the chaqing market, I found a small side road leading to a large area of white tea plantation. This is the height of the season and a large number of tea pickers are out working in the fields.











A gathering of older women not working in the field. My picture taking was spotted by some of them, and immediately they stopped talking to each other and all lined up against the wall looking defensively at me. I quickly withdrew and rode away, not dared to take another picture. My apology for disturbing their peaceful afternoon.



At the foot of the tea fields, there are two tombs of different style. A traditional one sits next to a Christian burial in harmony.