Goodbye to Hangzhou

This morning we went out about 5:45 for a walk to say goodbye to the West Lake and Hangzhou for this trip. It was warm, but we were anything but alone -- many people come out early to walk and enjoy the day. This photo along the causeway shows something of the number of people out walking.It seems to be common for people to be out early, exercising or just enjoying the day, and it's nice to be in their company. It really doesn't feel "foreign" somehow being here, and we look forward to our next trip back to China.

Another birthday dinner

Birthdays, like other good things, are just too good to only have once. We had wanted to take Prof. Jiaoying Shi to dinner when we got to Hangzhou, but it ended up as a family dinner with our very good friends.From left to right: Prof. and Mrs. Shi, Ke Yang, Judy and me, and Mingmin Zhang and her daughter.

We went to the Kuiyuan Restaurant, a restaurant with a long history in Hangzhou, and had their specialty shrimp and fried eel noodles -- along with lotus-leaf chicken, a specially-prepared fish that we really like, and several other things. Noodles are, of course, a birthday specialty meaning long life.

Morning walk up Beishan Hill

Just north of West Lake is a hill that I believe is called Beishan Hill -- bei=north, shan=hill or mountain. It's not a very high hill, only some 200' from the lake, but it's quite picturesque and we've never walked up it on any of our other trips to Hangzhou. We did walk up this morning before the day got warm, and below are a few photos of the hillside, a temple near the top, and a view of West Lake from the hillside.We really enjoyed the walk and are sure that the exercise was good for our old knees. Tomorrow will be our last day in Hangzhou (and in China) and we hope to have one more good walk by the lake before we leave.

Hangzhou markets

When we are at home, Judy is Not A Shopper. The caps are intentional. She simply dislikes shopping and everything associated with it (except for the farmers markets, as I talked about earlier). But when we travel, things are exactly reversed -- she loves to shop, though she shops for friends and for gifts more often than for herself or for me. Me -- I like to putter around some markets, but not all.

Anyway, while here in Hangzhou we've shopped in three markets. The first was the Hefang Street market (called "History Street" on our map), where there are traditional shops and fixed kiosks, the wares are traditional and varied, and the prices usually non-negotiable (at least to westerners). The second was the Jiankang Road silk market, a long, long street of silk shops with clothes and scarves, and where the prices were negotiable but not too much, because the quality was generally very good. Our friend Yang Ke was with us and helped us greatly with questions of prices and quality -- he gave up time working on his dissertation to be with us, and we appreciate it very much The third market was the Wushan Road Night Market, a very, very crowded set of temporary tables with widely varying quality and very negotiable (read: VERY negotiable) prices and a crush of people walking up and down the street. We come to the Night Market every time we're in Hangzhou and, while its wares have changed and the growing prosperity of China means that the omigosh-it-can't be-that-inexpensive-can-it prices have changed, it remains a real treat. We bought something at each, and enjoyed each of them in its own way.

West Lake in Hangzhou

This morning we went out walking early along Hangzhou's West Lake, one of China's most famed beauty spots. This is one of the places on earth I've found where my blood pressure drops and I feel really happy and contented. It might help that I've never been here without Judy, even before we were a couple -- but I digress.

Today is sunny and hot, hot as it gets in the US midwest or south, sticky and hazy hot. So we went out early, around 6am, with the sun low and the shadows long. Almost immediately across the street from the hotel is a large patch of lotus plants that are in full bloom. The flowers are amazingly lovely, shaded from white to a dark pink, as you can see in the photo; the background is Xiling bridge to an island, linked to the city by the bridge and a long causeway.From out on the island, the view across the lake includes some islands and a pagoda on the far shore through the morning haze (though if you look a bit farther to the left, you can see the modern city).

Our hotel in Hangzhou

OK, so why on earth are we talking about something as prosaic as our hotel? Because we've stayed here several times and it's in such a lovely setting -- right across the street from the West Lake and an easy walk from many neat places. We know it as the Xinxin Hotel, but they seem to want to call themselves "Hangzhou The New Hotel." When we were here before, it always seemed to be just a little old-fashioned, just a bit like China might have been like a generation ago. We were surprised to find that it has had some remodeling done and is now very much like a standard Chinese business hotel (which is NOT the same as an American business hotel; you can find some of those in China, but why would you want to?) Some of the changes are nice -- the front desk is more efficient and the breakfast room is now in the former dining room with a wonderful lake view. Some of the changes are ... well, quirky. We have a full-sized window from the bedroom with a view of ... the inside of the shower. I've not seen anything like that since a room I once had in Las Vegas. Oh, well...

Public transportation in China

Since we've been in China we've taken many taxis and a high-speed train from Nanjing to Suzhou, and today we take a bus from Suzhou to Hangzhou. We'll also take a bus from Hangzhou to the Shanghai airport when we leave China. About the only thing we've not used is local buses; taxis are easier for us. Some things stand out about this transportation:

1. it's inexpensive. The high-speed train (up to 206 kph) cost $10 per ticket, the bus to Hangzhou costs about 50 cents more, and we've never spent more than $6 on a taxi (and all our taxi trips in Suzhou have been less than $2).

2. it's efficient. Things run on time and move pretty well. You don't always want to watch the taxi driver in traffic -- but (s)he knows how to get around in traffic. The train was one of the smoothest we have ever taken, and that includes many of the European trains including the TGV.

It doubtless helps that Judy speaks some Chinese, but between hotels and friends we have not had any problems in arranging transportation. I think the US could learn some things!

Suzhou gardens

The part of China that includes Suzhou and Hangzhou, sometimes referred to simply as Su-Hang, is famous in China for its beauty. Suzhou is sometimes called "The Venice of China" because of its many canals and lakes, and it is also known for its beautiful gardens, many of which are world heritage sites. Here is a photo of a canal we crossed on the way to one of the gardens.
The Humble Administrator's Garden is known as the most beautiful garden in south China. It includes several lakes and canals, as well as several buildings. In the early summer season, there are many lotus plants in the lakes and in large ceramic pots on the grounds. The photo shows a typical view in the garden.
Nearby is the Lion Grove Garden, a smaller garden that has smaller vistas and more buildings but is still quite lovely. This garden looks like it was part of the living areas of a home, and some of the buildings are set up for things like receiving guests. There is one lake in the garden, and the photo shows that and the fanciful stone structures that are found in all the gardens.
A third garden we visited was smaller and was near the east city moat (yes, moat -- a river flows around all four sides of the old city of Suzhou.) The Garden of a Couple is even more of a garden with a residence, and it had even more of the feel of a home. The photo is of one of the garden's main features -- an artificial "mountain" in one of the courtyards. Overall the garden is said to have the feel of the mountains.

Suzhou pingtan

When we were in Suzhou two years ago, we came across Pingtan, a lovely art form in which two singers, usually a man playing a three-stringed instrument with a small sound box and a woman playing a pipa, sing ancient songs in an antique Suzhou dialect. We found a small studio just a few doors from our hotel where pingtan was performed, and enjoyed it so much that we went back there last night. We didn't take any photos -- it has always felt rude to ask to take them -- but there are some wonderful photos on the linked page.

We had an interesting language experience at the studio. The manager brought us two books and a couple of sheets of paper, and tried to explain to us what was expected of us -- but she did this by writing things over and over (in Chinese, of course) and saying things more slowly and loudly, just the things that we've seen Americans do in English while trying to communicate in Europe. We finally figured it out -- one book let us order drinks (we ended up with green tea, mostly by default) and the other book let us order songs, at a cost of 20 to 50 yuan each. There were a few others at the performance, also ordering songs, so we had a nice evening.

Becoming an object

Today we visited two of the beautiful gardens of Suzhou, the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lion Grove Garden. They merit a posting of their own, and they'll get one. But tonight's story is about what happened there.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a clown or a statue and have people stand by you and have their picture taken? That happened to us several times today. We are apparently different enough -- older, larger, whatever -- so that people want to have their picture taken standing with us, even with their arms around us. It's an interesting feeling and certainly is not offensive, but it leaves you feeling a little strange and wondering what they must see that makes them want the photo.

So your homework for tonight is to think about this: what might make a stranger want to have his/her/their photo taken with you? Please send your answer in a SASE and we'll award an appropriate prize to the winner. Neatness counts... ;^}

For shame!

Sometimes it's difficult to live up to one's principles. Forces seemingly outside one's control take over, and one does things that one really doesn't want to do. This is the story of one such situation.

We're in Suzhou, and we're out of instant coffee that we can brew in the room to start the day. Our hotel room does not include breakfast, and the daily price for breakfast is more than we want to pay. What to do, what to do?

One word: Starbucks.

We knew there was a Starbucks in Suzhou (we saw it when we visited two years ago), and we knew it was within walking distance (1/3 mile) from the hotel. And we knew that we really wanted some good coffee.

So we strayed from our principles and went to an American chain while we were out of the country. We walked right by the KFC, we turned up our nose at Pizza Hut, we didn't even give McDonald's an instant's thought. But we were led astray by Starbucks.

Be kind when you think of us, be generous, be forgiving. But damn, the coffee and scone were good this morning...