Hangzhou, Suzhou and Xitang

The highlight of this last week was our trip to Yangtze River delta near Shanghai.  We flew to Hangzhou early Wednesday morning, April 30th.  Thursday, May1st is a national holiday, (Labor Day), and we didn't have classes on Wednesday.  Leaving early helped us beat the crowds and gave us the opportunity to see some of the city before others of our BYU group arrived. It is quite interesting how the Chinese government sets its holidays.  For 2014 May 1st falls on a Thursday.  Therefore, everyone has Thursday off.  In order to make it a 3-day weekend, they also count Friday as part of the holiday.  But, to make up Friday, which is not an "official" holiday, you must work on Sunday.  Since I have one class on Friday, I had to hold that class Sunday morning.   My Thursday classes did not have to be made up.  This wasn't a problem for Nancy because she doesn't have class on Fridays.  And both of her writing classes meet on Thursday, so they are still together as far as the sequence of lessons.

This is the farm land area surrounding Hangzhou.  Our guide said these farmers are considered "rich" as they own their own land and can rent out rooms in their homes to migrants, so they get a sizeable income.

There seemed to be individual homes outside the city and not as many large high rise apartment buildings in the city.
 

At one time there was a canal system in China that went from Beijing to Hangzhou.  Now not all of the canals are connected, but many are in use for water transportation.

 

Hupao Spring Park (Running Tiger Spring) near West Lake

 

This spring, according to "scientific research" is the third best quality spring in China.  (Jinan is rated higher!!).  People were actually carrying water bottles up and down the hill to get clean drinking water.  "Legend has it that a monk named Xingkong lived in Daci Temple. Coincidentally, he dreamed one night that an immortal told him that two mighty tigers would move a fountain there, just after he had made plans to leave the temple, due to lack of water. To his surprise, two mighty tigers came in the following day from Mountain Hengshan and dug a hole in the spot where the spring immediately gushed forth. Hence, the spring was named Running Tiger Spring." (wiki)

 

 

 

Old city gate to Hangzhou.  Hang refers to wooden boat and Zhou means small lake.

After arriving in Hangzhou Wednesday morning, we traveled by bus into town, (Only 21 million population metro area)  It is most well known for West Lake, a manmade freshwater lake with pagodas, temples, gardens, causeways and artificial islands.

This is a pagoda that we climbed to get the view of West Lake.

 

 Even though the air quality is much better in Hangzhou, the atmosphere was still hazy, but West Lake is visible in the background.

 Stan "enjoying" lotus root powder drink which is naturally good for your health!!  It really didn't have a lot of taste and seemed to be thickened with cornstarch.

 These ladies entertained us while we enjoyed our lotus root drink.  Our guide said we were just to relax as Hangzhou residents walk slowly, enjoy the fresh air and landscape and live a long life!

This video may not play, but Nancy had a fun time banging the gong near the pagoda overlooking West Lake.

 The city is well cared for and has lush vegetation.  There are even plantings under the freeways!  These flowers added color along a parking lot adjacent to a public square.

This was part of the Hangzhou old town.  We were excited to find a Dairy Queen in the area and enjoyed blizzards!

We visited a museum that had many bronze crafts with very delicate details.  This is a replica of Tongyuan bridge designed by Zhu Bingren, a fourth generation Chinese craftsman.  It represents both sides of the Taiwan Strait...they come from the same source and the bridge connects the "hearts" of the two areas.  "Once the soul of the bridge set up, no dead end road between two sides."  In 2011 Mr. Zhu Bingren presented a model of this bridge to a famous poet in Taiwan.

 

View from outside our hotel window in Hangzhou.  This square goes to the canal, which you can see in the background.

The following pictures were taken at West Lake.  It is a freshwater lake surrounded by mountains on three sides and has many springs.
 

There were a lot of Chinese tourists, but we managed to find a quiet spot for pictures.

 

We took a boat ride on West Lake

 

This urn was in the garden.  The guide said it was representative of a vessel from which to drink alcoholic beverages!

 

 

This is the three pools mirroring the moon.  During the mid-autumn festival the moon is bright and full.  People come to this location to observe how the moonlight reflects from the stupas onto the water. Since there are some holes in the stupas, sometimes candles are also placed inside to enhance the reflection quality.  A scene from West Lake is found on the back of the 1 yuan bill. 

 

 

Bob Richards, from our BYU group, was having a great time trying

 to find the end of the noodle.  The gal next to him is his fiancée, Vickie.  Bob lost his wife a few years ago and Vickie's husband has been deceased about 15 years.  The families have been friends for over 30 years and Bob's wife had encouraged him to consider Vickie as a spouse after she passed.  Bob and Vickie have been corresponding since he has been in China and they are being married the end of July.  Bob would like to teach for BYU one more year and this trip was a "test run" for Vickie to see if she could handle the China experience!

You never know what you will see on the freeways of China!

Suzhou is known as the Venice of the East as it has many canals plus classic Chinese style gardens. 

 

Garden of the Humble Administrator, Suzhou.

 

You will notice that this garden is rather crowded.  It is one of the most visited sites by the Chinese and we were there during a national holiday vacation!

We just couldn't get over how many people were there.  Our tour guide said we would get a "free body massage" since you have to elbow your way through the crowds all the time.  Surprisingly the BYU teachers from Tianjin were "discovered" by one of their students as we were waiting in line to visit the garden.  Out of 1.3 billion in China, a student and two teachers meet in a city several hundred miles from their campus!

 

We visited a silk factory and this was an embroidery sample.

We went for a fascinating tour of a silk factory.  Those really are silkworms feeding on Mulberry leaves in the second picture above.  Their life cycle is less than a month.  The last picture shows how the strands of silk are separated from the cocoon.

This pagoda is leaning.  It is part of the 2nd major garden we visited in Suzhou.  Again, it was very crowded. 

This is a sword canyon where a ruler was buried in his tomb.

This site has some special significance.  All the workers that dug the tomb for the ruler...with his 300 swords, were killed after their work was finished and they exited the tomb.  They may be buried beneath this rock.

This picture and next was taken in the 3rd major garden in Suzhou.  It is called the Lingering Garden.  We lingered.  There were fewer people there so we relaxed a little.  That rock is limestone.

 

  We had a few people with us who are not BYU Teachers.  One was a visiting law professor from Florida and her husband and there were three American families who work in Beijing in the oil business or for John Deere.

 

This is an ancient water town called Xitang where we enjoyed a boat ride and just wandering through the small streets observing the wares and smells!

These are some of the food vendors along the canals.

 

We did not eat from the street food vendors.  However, our tour guide said this would be a Chinese lunch and not westernized.  This was not a fancy hotel restaurant and more a "mom and pop" establishment.  We all agreed that the food was some of the best we have had....peanuts, string potatoes, carrots and a pickled white radish, eggplant with oil and garlic, etc.

 

Chinese like to dress up and "pose" for pictures.

 

 This was a Chinese gentleman and his mother who waved to us while we were on the boat ride. 

This is the train station in Shanghai, which is actually connected to the airport.  This was Saturday afternoon and there was not a seat to be found. As soon as a person got up from their seat it was quickly occupied.  Most vacationers were returning home because most had to work on Sunday.