We had a very nice breakfast at the Hangzhou Honglou, and then took a bus to West Lake for a cruise. It's a very beautiful semi-man made lake, and considered to be one of the most romantic spots in China. We walked along the Lovers Causeway before we got on the boat for a cruise. We heard several sad stories about Chinese lovers, including the white snake lady. All the stories seem to end with somebody dying. Hmm. There are hills around the lake, all made from silt taken from the lake. The gardens around the lake include three sites, the solitary hill, which isn't solitary, the long walk, which isn't that long, and the broken bridge, which isn't broken. On the lake, there are three little pagodas (pictured), which are also depicted on the back of the one-yuan bill. Around the lake, there are about 700 tea houses in Hangzhou, where people can spend all day drinking tea, eating and playing cards. Apparently, people in Hangzhou are pretty relaxed and believe in taking care of themselves. Jenny also told us about a moon holiday when the local people come out to the West Lake and see the 33 moons. Apparently there are five moons on each little pagoda, and with their reflection in the lake, that makes 30 moons. Then there's the moon in the sky and it's reflection, that makes 32 moons. And finally the moon that shines with love in your heart (or something like that) is the 33rd moon.
We left West Lake and headed to a tea orchard, which was a bit of a drive, but it got us out of the city and into the country. It is a beautiful area, with lots of tea trees, which are about the size of tea bushes. They have green tea and black tea. We walked over by the tea trees, and then watched a local man drying the leaves. We then went into the tea house for a cup of green tea and a lecture on tea. Like the embroidery and silk factories, this totally exceeded all expectations. We learned that tea is picked from March on into the summer, and the earlier that it's picked, the better the quality. We also learned that the water should be boiled and then cooled to 85 degrees. The tea lady put two pinches of tea in our cups, glasses actually, and then the hot water was poured in a very specific manner, which is hard to describe but it was sort of a triple pour. The tea lady then told us to lean over the glass and get some of the green tea steam in our eyes. It's apparently really good for our eyes. Then we drank and refilled and learned how green tea is good for everything. We were all sold, not only was she the number 1 tea packer, but she was also the number 1 saleslady! We bought as much tea as we did silk comforters. Aisling even bought a tea-filled pillow!
We went to have lunch at a lovely restaurant by the lake. I went to the bathroom, and on my way back to the table, Gordon called me and said, "Hey look at this". It was a case full of live snakes! There was also a frozen alligator! Because we were tourists, they didn't offer us snake or alligator, however. We then went to Lingyin temple, a buddhist temple in Hangzhou. Although many religious icons were destroyed during the Cultural revolution, this one was apparently protected by the Premier at that time. In it's heyday, long before the Cultural Revolution, there were as many as 3000 monks in this temple. We walked through a long garden, with many stone Buddhas, most of which had a strong Indian influence, as one of the founding monks was Indian. There were three main buildings, one of which had the largest Buddha statue in China. I guess it's the number 1 Buddha. Another building had 500 bronze statues of Buddha's followers, each weighing one ton. It was amazing.
We went back to the bus and drove on to Shanghai. We checked into the New Mayfair hotel, which was fabulous. We went to a nice restaurant for dinner, where we had a short speech by Yu Li, the president of Legends of China. Because the hotel was in downtown Shanghai, there were lots of things close by, including a park, several Starbucks and other fast food type places. After dinner, several people went for a walk around the hotel. Then Aisling went to Pizza Hut with some of the young people and Gordon and I got a massage in the hotel. It was Chinese massage, very tough, but I felt better afterwards. We were in the same room, and Gordon's masseuse came in first. When my masseuse came in, Gordon was lying face-down, and she thought he was my sister because of his pony tail. After our massages, we had a drink in the hotel bar with Kim, Joe and Harry before going to bed. All said, I think the MayFair was the best hotel, because of it's location in Downtown Shanghai and all the facilities in the hotel.
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