Ningbo Part Two

This grand ceremony involves many steps and can last from seven to 49 days. For the secular participants, it's sort of a memorial service to those deceased family members or friends.

The tranquility of Xuedou mountain does not always provide peace of mind, at least that's the case for General Zhang Xueliang in 1937 while he was imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek in the then travel agency of Xuedou mountain.

In 1936, Zhang Xueliang seized Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an and forced him to establish a united front with Chinese Communist Party against the encroaching Japanese.

Zhangxueliang got the promise from Chiang, at the price of his own freedom though. Zhang was just 37 years old when he was first imprisoned here, and didn't regain freedom until in his nineties.

The trip got to Cixi, a neighboring county of Fenghua.

In Fenghua, there is an original site of a kiln built in Tang Dynasty about 1,000 years ago. Over 100 such kind of kilns were discovered in this area, and most of them are scattered around the lake.

Back to 2,000 years ago, Shanglin Lake was surrounded by many kilns known for making a special kind of China, yueyao qingci. Qingci later got obsolete in Song Dynasty almost 1,000 years ago, and the kilns were also neglected and wasted away.

It was via Shanglin lake that many Qingci products were transported out even to Japan and Korea over 1,000 years ago.

Our host is having an interesting conversation with a local resident.

Xiaoyao: I know a place where you can find plenty (pieces). But you need to search inside thick grass.

Host: Great, I think I'm in good hands, Mr. Yao seems like an expert in ceramics, china; and he is a local of course. So he knows about where to find the good pieces. We'll see!

Host: I really didn't expect the lake is so beautiful itself; and the wind so soothing, relaxing. Even if I cannot find any good pieces of China, I still find this trip very worthwhile.