14 March 2008 (pm)
Here we are.... in Chaozhou Province. I simply love Shantou and Chaozhou for everyone speaks my dialect, Teochew. Hehe... Teochew people has a history of 2000 years. We started our tour here with a visit to Kai Yuan Temple. It is about 200 years old.
After lunch, we visited the ever popular Xiangzi Bridge at the Hanjiang River, just outside the City Wall. Once this river was infested with crocodiles and a famous hero, Han Yu drove them away. Where are they now? Thailand lah. That's where the saying goes, 'Where there are crocodiles, there are Teochews'. LOL.
Han Yu also built a bridge and named it after his nephew, Han Xiangzi - one of the Eight Immortals. After governing Chaozhou for 8 months, he left for the Capital. For all the good work he had done, the mountain (Han Shan) and river (Han Jiang) were named after his surname Han. Hanwen Shrine on Hanshan was also built in his honour.
