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).