July 22, 2009 ALP Total Solar Eclipse Expedition To Wuhan, China
 
by James Kevin Ty & Francisco Lao, Jr.
Images by James Kevin Ty  , Jett Aguilar,  Francisco Lao, Jr., Andrew Ian Chan , Chang Guo Qiang

DAY BY DAY ACCOUNT OF THE EXPEDITION TRIP

DAY 5 - JULY 23 WHOLE DAY WUHAN CITY TOUR

The group once again had an early breakfast so that they can start the Wuhan day tour as early as possible. At around 7:30am, they left the hotel and Ma Cheng assign a new tour guide named Anna to help us on the Day  tour activities.   The temperature that morning is again very hot at around 35 deg C. For the record, Ma Cheng was with the group for the first 4 days and take good care of the group and the group really appreciate and thanked him for his time and effort to take care of their needs during their stay in Wuhan.

Their first visit was to the very interesting Wuhan Yifu Geological Museum.  The museum has some of the rarest collection of rocks, minerals, dinosaurs and other fossilized plants and animals as well. Zed, who is an expert in geology specializing in minerals and gems, gave the group a very educational and interesting explanation of the items found in this facility.  He even surpassed the knowledge of the local museum lady narrator as she asked James and Anna how come Zed knows so much :) LOL  One of the most interesting section of this museum of course is where one can see some real dinosaur bones and some fossilized plants as well as dinosaur eggs.  At the mineral section, Zed told the group he was surprised to be able to see a large chunk of rare element Antimony in such a large size.  There were also many meteorite collection as well as crystal druse.

Wuhan Yifu Geological Museum	Beautiful Ammonite Formation can be found at the ground floor of the facility.
Nice complete small dinosaur fossil specimen.	Dinosaur Eggs
Semi complete medium sized dinosaur fossil specimen.	Dinosaur Galore!
Bird's Eye View of the Dinosaur Room	ALP Wuhan TSE team posed in front of a rare large block of  fossilized mix of animals and plants specimen.
ALP VP Jett Aguilar stands beside the dinosaur skeletons to give one an idea how big the dinosaur specimens in the facility are.	Nice small pieces of amber that have small unknown insects embedded inside it.
A beautiful rare large Antimonite specimen can be found in the center	A fisheye view of the mineral room.  Nice collection!

Afterwards,as they head to Hubei Provincial Museum, they stopped  by over a large lotus field which was very beautiful and relaxing to view. Mam Elaine then bought some lotus seeds for the group to try them out. Then they proceeded to Hubei Provincial Museum to see some historical artifacts as well as see the tomb of Marquis Yi of Yeng which was unearthed in Suizhou , Hubei Province. in 1978. The tomb can be found in the facility as well as the thousand of relics excavated from the site.  one of the highlights there is the Musical program prepared that use a replica of assorted bells and chimes that were discovered.  The original musical bells and chimes can be found inside the museum as well.  The musical program lasted around 15 minutes and gives one a sense of peaceful aura and relaxation. There was also a prototype model of the actual excavated tomb and how the relics as well as the positions of the coffins on discovery day as well as a miniature model of how Wuhan City looks like way back in the early period.  One of the interesting arts found  inside the tomb that are astronomy related are the suitcase containing the diagram of the twenty-eight constellations. Midway, they had lunch at the museum so that they can save more time to view the huge facility.

A large Lotus plantation can be seen between their trip from Yifu Geological Museum and Hubei Provincial Museum.	A fisheye view of the huge Hubei Provincial Museum.
Inner Coffin of Marquis Yi of Yeng	A model of the actual excavation tomb and relics position of  the tomb of Marquis Yi of Yeng
Front View Of The Original Hubei Musical Bells and Chimes.	Side View Of The Original Hubei Musical Bells and Chimes.
Another Angle View Of The Original Hubei Musical Bells and Chimes.	Highlight of the museum visit is a great musical performance using a replica models of the original Hubei Musical Bells and Chimes.
The Hubei Musical Band Group were given a great applause of their performance.	A scale model of the original ancient city of Wuhan in the early years.
Diagram of the Twenty Eight Constellations	Diagram of the Turning of the Dipper & Rotating of the Stars

They then moved on and visited the famous Yellow Crane Tower wherein one can view the entire Wuhan City if one go up to the top floor of the tower as well as rang the big fortune bell that is located outside the tower.  It was said that by ringing the bell, one can ask for good luck on anything in life like good health, wealth, peace of mind, good wisdom.  ALPers Jett, Andrew and James had their turn at the bell.  ALP president James asked for good health, peace of mind as well as good wisdom and patience in handling the ALP.

A Bird's Eye View of the Lucky Fortune Bell fro the top floor of the Yellow Crane Tower.	A large wall art showing the Yellow Crane Tower.
A Worm's Eye View of the Yellow Crane Tower.	Fisheye View  of the Yellow Crane Tower

FOUR PANORAMIC VIEWS OF WUHAN CITY FROM THE TOP FLOOR OF YELLOW CRANE TOWER

ALP Wuhan TSE Team at Yellow Crane Tower

After their visit at Yellow Crane Tower, weather suddenly turn cloudy and rained very hard and they were glad that the bad weather didn't arrived yesterday or else they could have missed the eclipse totally like what happened in Shanghai area.  With only one more place to visit before most of the tourist spots closed at 5:30pm, they opted to visit the Wuhan Zoo to at least get a glimpse of the 2 giant pandas that were housed there after the great earthquake that struck Sichuan province in early part of last year.  The Panda Research Center in Sichuan breed and housed more than 40 Pandas in their facility but due to the quake, they were forced to transfer most of the Pandas out of the facility to nearby cities of China.  The two Pandas in Wuhan Zoo were named Shin Shin and Xie Wang (Hope).  They were able to see the two Pandas but because the facility is already closing, they got to view it as well as view a few animals such as peacocks and tigers only.  One interesting observation of the Pandas is that aside from aircon and electric fan in the cage, two large ice blocks can also be found to help the Pandas bear the heat in Wuhan :0

They then went back to the hotel after the zoo visit and get some rest as well as go to the newsstand  to get the latest news on the total solar eclipse and again in the for the third day, ALPers got to get featured in the Wuhan Evening Post with ALP Wuhan TSE team leader James Kevin Ty 's fisheye shot of the Sun Halo at sunrise being featured on page 2 as well as one more image of James with his eclipse setup entitled "  One Man with 3 Cameras."

Wuhan Evening Post July 23, 2009 Front Page

Wuhan Evening Post July 23, 2009 Page 2 showing ALPer James Kevin Ty's Early Morning Sunrise Sun Halo Image.

Wuhan Evening Post July 23, 2009 Page 3 shows an image of  ALPer James Kevin Ty beside his 3 Still & Video Imaging Setup.

That evening, it was ALP VP Jett Aguilar's turn to treat the team members for a job well done as well as celebrate his belated birthday blowout :)  It was another good fine dining before they wrap up their expedition trip tomorrow.

DAY 6 - JULY 24 WUHAN-XIAMEN-MANILA TRIP