October 14, 2005

October 14, 2005

Hangzhou was known as heaven on earth in Chinese culture and is supposed to be one the prettiest of cities in China. This morning we walk thru a pretty garden with flowers and goldfish ponds and board a boat for a short cruise across West Lake. We are enchanted when our guide points out three miniature stone pagodas floating on the water. This scene graces the back of the One Yuan note.

Our next stop is the Ling Yin Temple, first built around 300AD. It is a huge complex. We walk past a hillside with many Buddha reliefs carved into its rocky hillside. We tour several temple buildings and see lots of Buddha statues, including a laughing Buddha and a very large wooden one covered in gold leaf. Another building, the Hall of 500 Arhats, has 500 gold monk statues.

After lunch we tour a local tea plantation and factory called Dragon Well. Tea was one of the ancient Chinese luxuries that Europeans traveled the globe to obtain from the Orient. Tea comes from the leaves of a small bush. This bush is cultivated like grapevines on the hills surrounding this plantation. Our tour guide shows us how they snip off the young parts of the leaf. We then watch a worker dry these leaves by hand on what looks like a warm wok. From there we head into the tasting room to prepare and sample their premier product. This is green tea. No one in our party is too impressed with the taste of this very expensive version. I guess our palates aren’t sophisticated enough to appreciate it. I know green tea is supposed to be better for you but I generally prefer black fermented tea like the British.

This stop at a government-owned factory-store has been one we have made in every city. It seems to be a mandatory part of tours in China. The negative side of me says that the government is trying to balance the low price of the tours with revenue from these high-priced stores. The positive side of me says that the government is trying to promote their traditional crafts. Most have been interesting and educational, but not all. We have been to a jade store, a fresh-water pearl store, a cloisonné store, and a furniture and rug store.

After the tea factory tour, we get on a bus for the two-hour drive to Shanghai where we spend the night at a hotel in an older section near the river. That night Aimee and I have a drink at the penthouse bar. This bar slowly rotates so we get a good view of Shanghai’s night-lights in every direction. One of the reasons I wanted to come to China now is to see it before it changes. China is in the midst of hyper-modernization. China is supposed to have two-thirds of all the construction cranes in the world. People joke that the construction crane is China’s national bird. It is too late to see old Shanghai. It is long gone. It has been replaced by an ultra-modern city. The lights of the new Pudong area across the river are a testament. It looks like Las Vegas now and it was a rice paddy just ten years ago.