Hangzhou

The way I decided to travel for the week before my internship was none other than genius... particularly for this part of the trip. Since I had stayed in an uncomfortable hotel in Huangshan, I choice to upgrade myself to the best hotel in Hangzhou, consisting of a pool, a fitness center, English-speaking staff, great food, tourist guides, HBO/Stars movies, massage center, ect. Although I won't get into specifics... I will say that I could afford to stay in such hotels but not for an entire week. Two days of luxury was absolutely refreshing, especially for my aching muscles (honestly my calves were sore for four days after the Yellow Mountains).

The day I arrived in Hangzhou it was raining. Unfortunately, all the sites in Hangzhou were outdoors. Fortunately, that meant that I could spend the day running around the luxurious hotel and laying in my king-sized bed watching HBO movies... guilt-free!

I woke up early the next morning, had a wonderful continental breakfast in bed and then walked around the West Lake. The only unfortunate thing about a place of great beauty is that you find yourself wishing that you had someone to share it with. The West Lake reminded me of a Monet painting... vibrant green lotus blossoms floating on top of crystal blue water. Elegant Chinese pavilions and bridges graced the still waters of the lake and inside the winding paths of the surrounding Chinese botanical gardens you can find lovers holding hands and posing for their wedding pictures. The boats drift slowly along the shore, hardly making any wake as the mist rises from the surrounding mountains. It all seems like a dream, even with the massive amounts of people crowding the area and the noise from the commercial golf carts carting the lazy to the popular sites.

I want to give a brief cultural lesson...
In the beginning of Song Dynasty's Yuanyou era (1086-1094), a great poet, Su Shi (蘇軾, also known as Su Dongpo), came to Hangzhou as governor and was a major influence on the area. At the time he came, the farmers in Hangzhou suffered from a drought, due to overgrowth of the weeds at the bottom of the lake clogging the irrigation ducts. Su Shi ordered dredging of the lake and piled up all the mud into a causeway, in the style of Bai Causeway, but much wider and nearly three times as long, he also planted willow trees along its banks. This causeway was later named after him as the Su Causeway. He wrote the most famous poem about the West Lake:

"Ripping water shimmering on sunny day,
Misty mountains shrouded the rain;
Plain or gaily decked out like Xizi;
West Lake is always alluring."

The poem is short but it accurately describes the scene of Hangzhou.

After a walk around the lake I discovered an amazing on-the-go meal from a vendor... it is pretty much the non-American version of a cup of noodles. It is extremely cheap, I think 5 RMB, and all you do is add hot water! It was a wonderful hot, spicy lunch... a perfect travel meal for when you want to sit and admire the surrounding natural beauty in a nearby park.

Around 8pm I bought tickets for Zhang Yimou’s famous Impression West Lake show. Never heard of Zhang Yimou? Did you happen to catch the spectacular 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony? The Impression West Lake Show was another one of his amazing spectacles. Staged entirely upon the lake itself (a stage has been built 3 centimeters below the surface), Impression West Lake is a spectacle of light, music, dance and theatrics. The story is based on a Hangzhou legend (somewhat lost on us foreigners, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment). Using the lake and its surroundings as props, lights and hundreds of actors create a sensational performance.

[I will post a film of some of it when I get a chance to edit it all together.]

At the end of a wonderful show I walked around the West Lake for 45 minutes... trying to find an available cab. After a very public display of pushing, shoving and yelling from a crowd of people I managed to steal a taxi away from some very angry local Chinese women. Although they didn't believe in the policy first come, first serve... I did and fought for my right.

The next morning I left on a plane to Xian.