Steve's China Blog

Monday, November 12, 2007

Hotspring weekend

On Saturday afternoon I joined a couple of hundred co-workers for a little trip to a place called HuaShuiWan, which is a hotspring resort area about 85 km (about 53 miles) outside of ChengDu. We boarded 6 buses and headed out in the early afternoon and after a pleasant drive through lots of farmland that surrounds ChengDu we arrived in HuaShuiWan.


Some farmland outside of ChengDu.


Playing a game on the bus.

The whole weekend was cloudy, and since the resort is up in the hills it was a little chilly.


Out of the farmands and up into the hills.

The town of HuaShuiWan is very small. Just two or three little hotels, a few touristy shops, a few little restaurants, etc...


Entrance to Hotspring Village hotel.


Horses and vendors outside the gate of the hotel.

After we arrived and checked in at the hotel, Hotspring Village, we went for a little walk around town. I always enjoy getting away from the city. The leaves have also started changing color in this area, and that's always nice to see.


Veteran memorial in HuiShuiWan.


Touristy stores.


Some friends go horseback riding.

Before dinner we played games, such as cards and Mahjong. I learned a new card game and played that with some friends. I did not win, but I did not lose. After playing cards we went to dinner.


Playing cards and mahjong.

After dinner a lot of us went to the hotspring pools at the hotel. The pools were divided into 5 areas... the smallest and hottest at the top, which went down to the next pool which was less hot and little bigger, down to the next which was less hot and little bigger, etc... The minerals in the water also dissipated as the water went lower and cooler, so that the top pools was very green and the last pool was very blue. We ended up staying at the pools most of the night, and I slept really well afterwards.


The lower hotspring pools.


A nice fish pond outside of my room.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast and afterwards some of us went to the pools again, some of us went for a walk, and some played games. It was a nice lazy morning and I just relaxed until lunch time.


Hotel dining room.

After lunch we checked out of the hotel, boarded our buses, and headed back to ChengDu.


On the outskirts of ChengDu.

2 Comments:

  • Looks like the China-equiv of going to Pipestem State Park. Does IBM sponsor these trips?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:10 AM  

  • Sometimes they sponsor the trips. It is sort of like a team building event. In the case of HuaShuiWan they paid for most of it. Anything like snacks, souvenirs, etc... we have to pay for.

    We have so many new people coming onboard so often that it's a great way for a lot of people to get to know each other quickly.

    By Blogger Steve Harms, at 10:18 AM  

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