On Saturday, we decided to visit Hangzhou, a city 120 miles from Shanghai. It's often called paradise on earth by the Chinese, heralded by poets and explorers for its natural beauty. At the heart of the old town is West Lake, and the lake is surrounded by pagodas and gardens. We were looking forward to this side trip; we'd even read an article in the New York Times recently chatting up the place. Honestly, I was also excited about the idea that we could take a super high speed bullet train to get there. That sounded just plain fun to me. Sadly, this was a kind of failed day. We got a later start than anticipated, found all the bullet trains sold out, arrived in Hangzhou later than expected, felt pretty well scammed by a couple of cab drivers who didn't use their meters, and found "paradise," the so-called "breath of fresh air" just outside the megatropolis of Shanghai, shrouded in the heaviest blanket of smog I've seen. Dwight's white shirt was flecked with black soot pretty quickly, Cindy's throat was feeling sore, and my eyes were burning and I was sneezing like mad. This was no day for a nature walk. Paradise seemed pretty hellish.
Can you see what looks like fog in this photo? It's smog enveloping Hangzhou's West Lake.
We decided to get a cab and drive out to see the area of town where a famous Chinese tea is grown and processed; it's called Longjing tea. The smog was just as thick there, but it was interesting to see how tea grows--this variety grows in short, round bushes--and to stop at a teahouse to sample some. They brought the hot tea in tall glasses, and since it was fresh, it didn't really need to steep at all. They also brought us snacks like watermelon slices, sweet peanuts, and sunflower seeds. We had a nice break. We wandered through the National Tea Museum there pretty quickly since we had to get back to the train station for our pre-booked return trip, but we bought lots of tea related souvenirs before we left. We got back to Shanghai and found it just as smoggy, but now it was starting to rain. The rest of the night involved a whole host of problems that left all of us periodically anxious, angry, and frustrated. I found a big cockroach in my room, we had a couple of upsetting misunderstandings with the staff at the restaurant we went to for dinner, and we were followed part way home by someone who pretty clearly seemed to be up to no good.
Even though it felt to the three of us like a lost day, we did have some fun. Here are some shots from the happy parts of our day. First, a tea field. I thought it was fascinating to see how it grows.
Dwight enjoys a steaming glass of Longjing tea.
We saw this happy couple several times that day, each time dressed differently and in some different spot in town. We understand from someone at the B&B that engaged couples in China who can afford to do so, have a an extensive series of photos taken before the wedding, with lots of rented costume changes and a variety of locations. We saw these kinds of photos being taken everywhere we went in China. Aren't they cute?
I'm happy to report that by the next day, we found plenty of humor in this lost day, and that we more than made up for any adventures lost by having a fun-packed day two in Shanghai.
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What a great trip! Thanks for writing the blog. I didn't think I'd ever have the opportunity to see China. Turns out I visited that fascinating part of the world after all-- albeit vicariously. :-)
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