Hulishan and the beach

While my sister, my aunt and my cousin were still in town, we went to the fortress and to the beach. Our friends here, Matt and Caroline, had Matt's sister Megan with them, so it was a party.

 The dancing around before the "fire" the cannon. There is a real boom, but no cannon call. And it was obviously previously loaded.

 Looking out over the water from the hill that the fortress is on.

 Down the hill to the beach.

 The beach.

 Abby, Caitlin, Megan, Caroline, Ashley, Patti. We got really wet right after this.

Abby, Caitlin and Megan.

Our day off Part 2

After the Mango Ice, we headed to the fortress, something we haven't done before. 

Up the stairs to the fort.

The grounds within the walls were pretty.

One of the canon.

Twice a day there is a demonstration on canons. These guys do a little dance in the courtyard then march up the path to where the canon is.

 

Their uniforms were really interesting but the poor guys seemed to be dying of heat - it was 94 degrees with 80% humidity.

Here is the demonstration - forgive the shaking at the end.

Then we saw the "4D" history of the fort. In Chinese. Daniel and I just enjoyed the cold air that was repeatedly blasted at us. Oh, and the British Navy who had Texas accents. Who knew?

Licy rocking the 3D glasses. 

Isn't Daniel just gorgeous? He was such a gentleman on Monday. The girls told him to carry my purse for me and he did. And looked silly, but helped me a ton. He's good to me.

Our posse of Chinese girls, Selena, Molly and Licy. They are so fun.

Then we headed over the BIG cannon. It's a 280mm caliber that can file 6 miles. These are the shells it fires.

I thought this was a cool tunnel.

Here she is. 

Huge. There were some amazing views from that part of the fort as well. I'll post those later.

Then we exited via the beach right next to the fortress.

Once you exited you couldn't get back in the fort. Daniel's so cute.

It was pleasant, except for the heat. Then we went to a noodle parlor for dinner. 

 This was the wall behind which they cooked the food and it was passed out through the little trap doors to the left of the door. It was good. The only problem was that they only served tea. Nothing cold, no water, nothing. It was rough.

Then we went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D.

I really liked it. I loved the adoption message it contained. I don't love 3D though. I don't think I will see a 3D movie again, it gives me headaches. But I loved Kung Fu Panda 2.

It was a pleasant day.