turtle head park

i don't know why it's called turtle head. i think maybe because one of islands is shaped like the head of a turtle? i'm not sure. anyway, it's near where i live, so i went there with some friends a couple weekends ago. near the entrance to the park, this was the view:
the walkway over the water was extremely tempting, but it was blocked off. i considered walking on it anyway, but didn't want to end up in the middle of the lake.
we walked along this path for awhile that goes over the bridge:
this was one of the nice peaceful places in the park for the day. we made the mistake of going there on a holiday on a day with really nice spring weather. so everyone else and their entire family thought they should go to the park that day too. it took us forever just to get a taxi to actually get to the park.

oh, but i also saw this:
chinese cats eat rice, but still go for the meat first. =)

we took a boat across the lake to an island.
right here, this is what happens when you go to this park on a nice spring day that is a holiday:
waaaaaaaaaay to many people. consider all these people we waited in line with just to get back on the boat:

anyway, it was still a fun day. no good statues, but fun doorways to pose in instead:

we found this interesting place on the island:
couples come here after getting married, have their names and the date of their wedding scratched on these locks and then lock them to the chains. there were thousands of them. our friend tried to find hers, but she couldn't find it, even though she knew in general where she had put it--there were too many. most of them look rusty too, not because they have been there for all that long, but because of the humidity.

us on the boat on the way back:
this is what happens to my face when i don't know if the camera is actually taking the picture or not.

then we waited on a street corner for our friend's sister in law to come pick us up. there were no taxis and the busses were crammed full of people. (this was the day with the grandparents and the little girl that went to the bathroom on the bus--see previous post.) we didn't know what was going on, because our friend out of frustration was just speaking in chinese to her family and not bothering to translate into english for us. so, we waited on this street corner for at least 20 minutes.
then we walked a bit more, and a car with the sister in law appeared, who drove us directly home. a lot of other random unplanned things happened during this day at the park with hoards of people on a holiday, not to mention crazy transportation and not knowing how we were going to get home or when as we sat on a street corner. but realizing that i wasn't stressed about any of it, and just went along with whatever happened, i wonder what is happening to me as a person. am i learning how to have no expectations? am i learning how to not worry about things i can't control? am i learning to be ok with whatever happens? i don't think i can really answer yes to any of those three questions in most situations. but i guess when it involves traveling in china, maybe the answer is yes.