Da Peng or Da Fen, and WHERE DO YOU GET THOSE SHELLS?!?!

Walls that stand twenty feet high. A drum tower. At least one hundred houses and people to inhabit them all. A small museum with a couple of swords, cannons, punters and other artifacts. The house of a general. Some stalls selling ice cream. This is what the fortress Da Peng holds. This fortress was bombed in the Boxer wars, more commonly known as the Opium Wars. In these wars, the European nations, and America, bombed China into letting them sell opium. China, being at a technological disadvantage lost. The plates in the museum describing these events are just what you would expect them to be, censored so that China did not lose any battles.
With a colleague of my mothers born in Israel, we came to this poorly rejuvenated fortress. The streets were marked by the occasional Chinese person, chicken, or dog. Stares abounded. After two ice creams, we had the energy to walk on. We walked past the last houses, past a dog lying in the shade and into a courtyard where smashed vases, ceramic bowls and more lay, evidence of the Cultural Revolution. Walking out of the yard we took a left to where burning in the sun statues of men stood. Playing Chinese chess, and getting a hair cut, ranked among their poses. We walked on past these men, and through a small alleyway that led us to a big street. Without noticing it, we had left the compound.
Several shops were stationed around and we poked inside one with kids’ toys, notebooks and more and bought some stuff. Then we went to eat at a noodle restaurant. I ordered potato noodles while my sisters and others ordered shaved and strung noodles. I ended up not liking mine but the other dishes were great. There was a TV set and I turned around and watched that for a little just for the fight scenes. Then we realized that we had lost our way so we found the direction we came from and walked that way. It turned out to be a good choice.
We came out the main entrance hoping to grab a taxi. With a long and painful conversation, we got the driver to take us to a beach. The driver had said “not far” but that was not the case. The price was okay but the distance was a little far. We had fun anyway. Even with no change we immediately started swimming. The water was a lot warmer than any natural pool I had ever swum in, in the US. There were pieces of coral on the bottom of the floor along with several shells. I saw one person with a piece of a chain link. There was no sharp stuff further out. I tried several times to touch the end of the swimming area rope, but I had to return to get water out of my eye. We left a little early because we did not know how to get home, but we met some people who spoke a little English and they helped us.
We ended up taking a bus that stopped at the stop we needed, and then a detour was taken to go shopping. There was a big mall and we entered the massive grocery store called Ole’ to buy cheese, ketchup, and other American stuff. When we got home we collapsed.