Red Leaf Valley

On October 23^rd, 2010, we were invited to join a tour group to see Red Leaf Valley, a beautifully landscaped area located an hour or so South West of Jinan, by bus.  Autumn is my favorite time of year.  When the weather is cool enough to wear a sweater, you feel more alive. This was the best time of year to visit.  Red Leaf Valley was very beautiful, and we got some good exercise walking up and down the hills, over the bridges and throughout the aviary.  It was a very enjoyable time.

When you walk into the park, you almost feel like you are walking into a post-card picture. 

There were lovely Pagodas, and streams.  If it weren’t for the large crowds of people that were there it would have been very romantic.

The aviary was full of beautifully colored, tail-less peacocks and other birds.  And . . . . the vendors were selling the long peacock plumbs!  So strange. . . they plucked them, to sell the tail feathers!!!

We were told stories of people who had been attacked by the peacocks – maybe because the peacocks feared that someone wanted to rip out their tail feathers. .  . do you think?!

We had a fun day.

It’s always tempting to rent a paddle boat, but we’ve learned that once you rent the boat – you have to paddle it!  So we resisted the urge this time. This is some of the wisdom that has come to us as we’ve gotten older. : )