Another week, another day bus daytrip. This time to ZhongShan which is about 70 kilometres south of GuangZhou. The coach left TuanYiDa Square near BeiJing Road at 8 o’clock and joined the rush hour traffic. A couple of hours later saw us pulling into the museum’s car/coach park about 100 metres from the museum’s entrance. We trooped past the various stalls selling tourist necessities and tat until we reached the I.D. check after 50 meters, of course me being a foreign devil meant I had to be treated differently. I was ushered to a table where a throng of ‘security’ people argued amongst themselves which form I had to complete. I just waved my passport and then left them arguing while I strolled the 50 metres to the entrance. The site consists of a new museum building which is surrounded by houses which were lived in by either Dr Sen, his family, his associates, and gardens. There’s a reception area where you can get a flyer, but I couldn’t find one in English. The houses are very nice to stroll around and peer into rooms. Each of these houses has been turned in to museum to illustrate their way of life or some other aspect of living at the beginning of the 20th century. The main museum is mainly old photographs of Dr Sen and his family. I think to you’d have to be a student of this period of Chinese history to get excited about most of the exhibits. however, it was refreshingly cool to get away from the outside oppressive heat and humidity. Most of the building’s information notices have an English translation, as do the various direction signs. There’s no café of the site, but the toilets are spotless. We had 2 hours at the museum, but I reckon you’d need three at least to see everything at a leisurely pace. Be aware this is a popular tourist attraction so expect occasional crowding. After the museum we were taken for lunch, then to a rather drab ancient shopping street, and finally a famous biscuit factory for a ‘retail experience’. The biscuits we bought cost as much as the trip for both of us, 200 Yuan. We’ve now enough biscuits to last us until at least the end of the year! Another grand day out.

Beautiful landscaped grounds. Totally immaculate. You could eat from the floor. Shows the beautiful Chinese culture to the extreme. The museum amazing and the reconstruction of the dwellings totally beautiful and sympathetically restored. They even offered us a personal translator at no charge. Totally amazed no admission charge for such a wonderful attraction of which China must be so proud of. Thank you for a wonderful interesting day in respect of a wonderful man.