Another Ecology Farm & Pearls Market

10/06/2008 The last day of China's National Holidays

It was a bit cloudy but no rains today. We went to Kun-Shan to visit Da-Tang Ecology farm located in a town called Qian-Deng. The ecology farm was run by the government, so the structure of the farm and overall outlook was very good but the service was not. This farm was a show place of farming. They grew many kinds of vegetables and fruit. However, it was hard to guess what kind of vegetable or fruit they grew because they did not put a name plate near every garden or tree. Fishing were allowed in the lakes. The farm was big. We walked all the way but cars were allowed to drive in so it was a bit dangerous and polluted. Fortunately, not many visitors today and it seemed to me that the locals did not like to visit place like this, so it was fine to me. The food in the farm restaurant was light but the service and the price was not good. If you did not call the waiters, no one would notice you and lead the way. And if you did not call them again, no one would bring the menu for you to order some food. I wondered if we did not call them, maybe we would not have to pay. Compared with the one we visited days ago, the Ninth Weekday farm restaurant, this one did not fit my taste. Richy told me that the Ninth Weekday was invested by Taiwanese, so the service and food was better. I just realized the difference between the local-invested and the foreign-invested restaurants.

Da-Tang Ecology farm is in Kun-shang and pearl city is in Su-Zhou. If you do not have a car dont rty Da-Tang. But Pearl city is a good place for bargaining and purchasing pearls.

Address of Pearl City: No. 88 Pearl Rd. Weitang of Xiang Cheng District

相城区渭塘镇珍珠路88号

After lunch we drove toward a pearl market located in a small town called Wei-Tang. On the mid-way Richy was stopped by a police because he drove through a changing traffic light without slowing down. Richy's driving pattern became closer to the local people and it worried me a lot. I tried to remind him all the time but I knew he was tired of my nagging. The policeman did not fine him but warned him. Richy told me he will be more careful next time when he drives through this area. What a P....!

~ Life (ours or others') is something we could not afford to risk~

The Pearl Market was not far, but as usual, the road signs always took us more than double time to figure out the way. When we got there, it was already 1 hour left before closing time. Some said people from U.S. , India , and other countries come here to purchase pearls for resale. There is even a problem of over-production of pearls in China. Anyway, today we just wanted to take advantage of the over-production and save money. We only visited one store and purchased some pearl necklaces. It was quite a rush but because of the rush we got good price. Usually the first and the last customer of the day gets good price in most stores in China.