Hangzhou
Trip Start
May 28, 2008
1
10
16
Trip End
Aug 02, 2008
Hangzhou,
Zhejiang,
China
Monday, June 16, 2008
It's hard to recount everything that happened this weekend. First, a little background: Hangzhou is considered by the Chinese to be one of China's most beautiful cities, if not the most beautiful. It's also renowned for its "mei3nu3," or beautiful girls from the area. Many many couples go there because it's considered very romantic. One of the main draws is the West Lake, or "Xi1 hu2", whose circumference is about 15 kilos. We took about a 2-3 hour ride in a kind of touring bus to get there, which is not bad at all. Upon arriving, we stopped at a popular ancient-style market which really is more like a tourist trap, but they have many unique and beautiful things. Also, you have to bargain for everything you buy, unless you're an ignorant foreigner (which we kind of are). Fortunately we learned about bargaining "jiang3jia4" in our last lesson, so we were prepared. We only had an hour there, so I felt a little rushed and didn't have time to sufficiently shop
asian market
. I did buy a necklace with a jade pendant for 20 kuai, which is about 3 dollars- so cheap! I would really like to go back and find something special. Next we went to lunch at a really nice restaurant. All the food had been preordered and paid for by our teachers, which is such a luxury because it's extremely difficult to read a chinese menu. Among the dishes were lotus root, bamboo shoots, oysters, some kind of sweet flower soup, a spicy chicken dish, beef, and other things I couldn't recognize but ate anyway. From there we went to "Dreaming of the Tiger Spring" which is a kind of forested area where you can climb and get spring water from the rocks. Apparently it's considered the third best spring in China. The story goes, a monk fell asleep in this place, and when he awoke, he found a tiger digging up a spring. From then on people have been climbing up lugging huge tubs to fill with the spring water to make Longjing tea, which is a specialty in the area. The place itself was very pretty, and the water was cold and, well, tasty. There wasn't much to do there, but it was fun anyway.
After the spring we all went to the Chinese silk museum where we essentially learned about the history of Chinese silk production. Don't get me wrong, I love silk, but it wasn't the most interesting museum I've been to
asian market
. Finally we were able to check into our hotel, called Overseas Chinese hotel, which was right next to the water of the lake. It was fairly nice, but we didn't spend much time there anyway. A group of us decided to rent bikes and bike around the perimeter of the lake, which is a fairly common thing to do. I thought we were going for a nice scenic stroll, but in fact our journey was full of tribulations. Someone's breaks didn't work, someone else's chain fell off, and in addition in China you ride bikes with the cars so it's very fast and seems very dangerous in the moment. On top of all that, our ride ended up taking far longer than expected and so we had to rush to get back to teh renter to reclaim our deposit (300 kuai). Nonetheless, the weather was beautiful and I was very happy to have the oppourtunity to once again ride a bike and also see the beautiful lake from all sides. That night, we were allowed to branch off and do as we pleased so a big group of us went out to dinner and also "out", but the group ended up separating so I ended up with a few people at a bar/club (see facebook). All in all it was a very fun night, though we had to wake up very early Sunday morning.On Sunday, the first thing we visited was the Lin2yin3 Buddhist temple. That was really cool- the last time it was renovated at all was during the Qing dynasty, and it was first established around 4th century AD. Where we entered, there are engravings of Buddhas on the rock walls. We climbed a loooong rock staircase up to the top of the trail, expecting some kind of amazing buddha at the top, but there was nothing really there except monks selling stuff. After catching my breath, we all headed back down to view the rest of the area. The are several temple complexes, and they all look like scenes out of movies of ancient China. We ventured into the main one where there were many groups, both Chinese tourists and Buddhists, who came to pray/burn incense/watch the monks
a few dishes
. This temple houses the biggest Buddha in China, so it was quite an amazing site. It's hard to explain everything, so I hope the pictures speak for themselves. After the Linyin temple, we visited the Tea museum where we were supposed to watch a performance of a tea ceremony, but we arrived a few minutes late and weren't able to. We were however still able to taste some tea and enjoy the beautiful scenery. After being treated to another really tasty lunch, we headed home to Shanghai. The downside of this trip is the essay I have to write about it- which I'd better get started on! Will update later this week, enjoy the pics!
°® (love), Lauren
Comments
FIRST!
Great photos! Souunds like you're having too much fun. By the wa,you look great. Now, back to work! jk lol
Gorgeous Pictures
I loved all the pictures- especially the one of the lake with the fog seeming to roll in- that was really pretty. And I have to ask if you got that lovely blue scarf in China- very unusual! Did you have the opportunity to have tea while you were there? If so, was is very different than what we have here in the states? Can't wait to see more pictures and here about your escapades. MOM