02-Mar-2008 -- Having lived in Shanghai from 2001 to 2005 I was in the lucky position to be able to get help from an old friend with a car to take me to the cp. She had a GPS linked to a mini-PC which should show us the way. These things are not always easy to operate, and with my limited knowledge of Chinese there was not much I could do to help with the Chinese maps.

Visitor No. 3 had, however, made such a good description of how he got there that once we found the road signs for Liantang it was easy going. We only had to walk the last 330 meters. We passed a shrimp pond. Along the bank of a canal cabbage and lettuce were cultivated. You have to use the land you have. We did not meet the shrimp farmer in the little white house, but nearby a mother and her son were preparing their fields by hand for the coming planting of rice.

By the shrimp pond there was a pole supporting a wire of some sort. It had cracked. In the shifting breeze the crack produced a creepy, moaning sound. Glad it was daytime.

The weather was nice, sunny, clear air and around 11 centigrades. Spring was definitely here.The first flowers were blooming (Veronica persica). A pleasant visit.

For GAO Xia, a soprano from Shanghai, this was her first visit to a cp. I should have asked her to sing an aria in praise of our reaching the confluence point......

Ps. The time on the GPS is CET +7.00 Beijing time.