[funny pic] 長春花下有餘香

[pazu]

Here's a funny pic I took about 2 years ago in one of the villages in Wuyuan (婺源) County, Jiangxi Province (and this place wasn't listed in the Lonely Planet).

Chang2 Chun1 Hua1 Xia4 You3 Yu2 Xiang1

長春花下有餘香 (in Traditional Chinese) or

长春花下有余香 (in Simplified Chinese)

This is lower couplet (下聯) for Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). Literally it means:

Chang Chun Hua = "long spring flower", i.e. periwinkle flower

Xia = below

You = Have

Yu = Lingering

Xiang = Scent

===> Lingering scent is there under the periwinkle flower.

I think the pic I took was kind of interesting because the old woman sat right under this couplet.

Anyway, the upper couplet was 積善堂前無限樂.

[holyman]

u mean she is smelly?

[pazu]

holyman, not really my thought, but it's totally up to you as to what you think she is...

[holyman]

just joking with u...

the town wasnt listed in lonely planet cos china decides which towns are fit to open to foreigners and which are not. if u check on japanese travel guides u will see a list of towns/province/county that are opened. those not there do exist, but officially u cant visit them. u can do it secretly, but westerners are probably easier to spot than other asian travellers.

[Tsunku]

Actually, I'm fairly certain that China is officially open now holyman, excepting some possibly sensitive border-areas. From what I understand (a couple of friends of mine ran into some trouble near the border of Vietnam, so that's how I know the rules), even border areas are supposedly open on the lawbooks, but local officials enforce the laws how they see fit and they also might not be aware that their regions have opened up yet, so that's why sometimes near the borders you'll be harassed by the police.

However, the government certainly does not keep foreigners restricted to certain areas anymore as a rule. Many of us here have personally travelled to extremely remote places without trouble. We're not limited to what is published in the guidebooks, those lists are just compiled to give people a rough outline of what's good and what's not, they're not binding.

[holyman]

maybe u are right about the situation now. i lost touch with that since a few years ago.