Emma in China: 沙拉in China! Fun times in Haining and Hangzhou with my college buddies

For the last week of school last year, my friend Sarah came to Haining to visit me for a week. She had been traveling around China, visiting different friends.Haining doesn't have a ton of interesting tourist attractions, so I did some investigating. I actually found some really great places not far from where I live.
The first day we did some shopping. There is a great place to buy a lot of cheap clothes and knockoffs in Haining. That is about all we did that day besides hang out for a while with my friend, Jojo. I got a nice new outfit, and we ate some delicious spicy snails. Later we ate snails again, and somehow the spicy sauce got into my eye, and my eye was spicy!

I had never taken any pictures in the teacher cafeteria. My mom said it looked like a prison. lol It has changed a lot since then. Now they have nice tables and chairs.
The next day we climbed a small mountain near that shopping place called 西山(west mountain). I never thought I would find such an interesting place in Haining.

A traditional Chinese toilet hahahaha

At one point we came upon the tomb of a famous poet. It was huge, and there were copies of his poetry carved into the walls on book shaped stones. The English and the Chinese were very difficult to read, but I think it said he died in a plane crash during the 1930's. His son was also buried there, and he died in the same decade, possibly before him. I can't remember now.

Afterwards we found an interesting cave that, to me, looked a little bit spooky, because of the red spots on the sign. What were those spots made of???? I don't really want to know. I took a picture of the English explanation, but everything on xishan was very worn out. It was all difficult to see. Since then they have been renovating the mountain, so maybe it looks better now. I'd like to go back and have a look.

Near the street where we were shopping there was a small Buddhist temple. We stayed in there for a while and had a talk with some of the monks and some ladies who were sitting inside. They said that some of the monks there were over 100 years old, and the showed us pictures of them. The ladies also wanted to discuss my plans for the future with Hui, and every time I go back they ask me if I am married yet. I loved that little temple! The monks were so nice, and they were so happy to chat with us. When you visit those big famous temples, you rarely even see many monks around.

The monks gave us apples!

There was another interesting area along the road, which I found when I was driving past in a taxi. I found out we sort of went there at the wrong time, because it's a bit more lively at night. I am hoping I can get back there with Hui before I leave Haining, because it looks really neat right now all set up for the spring festival.