I overheard 2 chinese students talking about this place when I was having dinner in the canteen and went to read up on it out of curiosity. When I saw the picture I like... wahhh, stunningly 山明水秀. The surroundings and the lake itself is very colourful: the pictures depict mainly parts called 五花海 and 珍珠滩瀑布.

If I didnt understand wrongly, I think a lot of the formations you see under the lake are formed from calcium carbonate which was around during the Ice Age and erm, (precipitated?) out as the climate is warmer now. Yah, then apparently this lake doesnt freeze over during the winter either cos the hot springs below keep the lake at at least 6 degrees celsius. Can read more here: www.jiu-zhai-gou.com

Good to know the world still has such beautiful places that gives us the chance to see and appreciate them.

It also reminds me of an article I saw today when some of us went to visit the school for the visually handicapped today at toa payoh about a blind photographer. A related article is here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/27/PKG5QBEBB01.DTL Quite nice, about how he became a taekwando teacher as well.

Maybe I'll just end of with a short story too =) When we were at the school earlier today, one of the low-vision boys there, probably upper primary, tagged behind our group for a while. When he started following us way beyond the classrooms, I decided to ask him if he was lost.

He replied, "Oh no, I just like to follow quietly behind when we have visitors. Like alien invaders. Wooo..."

Not really sure what to make of that, I asked, "Do you know where we're going now?" (Braille production unit)

His raised his index finger in glee and said, "We going to invade base. You're the good alien, I'm human and we're going to fight the bad aliens in the world."

And so he skipped off, avoiding longkangs and bumps with artful dodges I wished I could do on a soccer pitch. Keeping up with him, I clumsily knocked my foot on an elevated step into the building which he had skillfully avoided with a jump from the yellow round warning tiles you see in MRT stations.

"Careful," he said.

That really made me feel like an alien on his Earth.