Interesting similarities : Annie's life in Beijing

Wednesday Sep 12, 2007

Interesting similarities

I like going to one or two strange places each year. This year I selected Lushan, which is a place covers mountains and waters. Kongzi said: "The savant loves the mountain, the wise loves the water". And I love both of them, does it mean I am a savant as well as a wise?

Mount Lushan is located in the northern part of Jiangxi Province. The fantastic blend of mountains, sky, water and cragged cliffs proves Mount Lushan one of China's best summer resorts. So there are many villas on the mountain. The ownership of those villas is belonging to the central or local governments of China, but you can rent them if you like and have lots of money. Among those villas, the most famous one is called The Meilu Villa（美庐）. It was established in 1903 by Britain's Lord Lannoze. The whole building reflects British winding corridors architectural style, and stresses the abstract beautiful rule of the building. It was transferred to the Mrs. Bali in 1922, and she presented it as a gift to Song Meiling（宋美龄）in 1934. From then on, here became the summer official residence of Jiang Jieshi (the chairman of KMT, the husband of Song Meiling). During the meetings of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong lived there.

Lushan's beauty has been admired for centuries. About 1200 years ago, Li Bai, a master poet of Tang dynasty, portrayed Mount. Also other ancient poets like Bai Junyi, Susi wrote poems to describe the sceneries. In the 1970s, a famous film called Romance on Lushan Mountain (Lushan Lian) had displayed the beauty of Lushan through the screen. There is a cinema on the mountain which is showing and only shows this film repeatedly. Almost everyone who come to Lushan is willing to enjoy it, sure I am.

In Lushan, another place which is worth going is Bailu Academy. It was one of the Four Great Academies of Classical Learning in the past. The creator of the academy is Zhuxi, who was a protagonist of Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty. There are 37 kiosks which were established for the memory of Zhuxi. One of them is called Gao Mei Kiosk（高美亭）, which already disappeared, now only a big stone there which indicates its ever existence.

My manager's manager's Chinese name is Gao Meiling（高美龄）, I think she must be surprised to see there are two similarities in the same place.