China VI, the lake, silk embroidery and Shanghai

Weds. March 24

Yesterday's cruise on West Lake in Hangzhou was lovely. Old pagodas, romantic stories, a huge lake and park smack in the middle of the city.

I took a lot of pictures on the lake, but a heavy mist resulted in many pictures being too indistinct to show the true beauty of the scenery.
After that we went to the Tea Institute. Saw tea growing, how it is dried and served.


Not only are the plants in the foreground tea bushes, but the plants on the hillside as far as you can see are also tea bushes.

This man is hand drying tea for some of the more expensive types. All tea starts out from the same plant; differences in taste, aroma, etc. result from when the tea is picked and how it is dried and processed.

The Chinese can be very whimsical. This ornamental pond at the Tea Institute has a "teapot" fountain.

We were seated around a large table and given glasses with a pinch of tea. Then a woman came around pouring hot (not boiling) water into the glasses. Our tea guide explained that water for tea should never brought to a boil, as it "kills" the tea. The water is ready when little bubbles appear on the bottom of the heating vessel.

Baskets of various types of tea were passed around and we were invited to smell the differences. There actually is a difference between the higher and lower grade teas.


Peter, you're supposed to sniff it, not dive into the basket!


A glass of tea made from a "magic" tea flower. Perfectly lovely and also very drinkable.

I bought some wonderful tea and some "magic blossoms"--will be fun!

We had an OK lunch and then to Lingyin Park to see the "flying peak" and 72-foot camphor wood Buddha.

The Ligong Pagoda at the entrance to the Lingyin Temple grounds was built in honor of the Indian monk who gave the nearby mountain its name. He thought it was the spitting image of a mountain in his home of India and he asked if the mountain had flown there. Hence the name of the hill, Feilai Feng ( the Peak that Flew Here).


Lingyin Si (temple) is known not only for the large camphor wood Buddha, but also for the 470 Buddhist carvings lining the riverbanks and hillsides, dating from the 10th to 14th centuries.


It would be interesting to know how the artists managed to carve these rocks without falling into the river.

Below is the famous "Laughing Buddha". A few more intrepid tourists, including some from our group, braved the slippery rocks near the river to get a closer look, but not moi.

All the buildings are temples, active houses of worship, and photographs are not permitted inside. However it is acceptable to snap what you can from outside the door. Below is The Hall of the Four Guardians, containing four huge colorful figures, one of which you can see fairly well.


Above is the Great Hall, which houses the 72-ft high camphor wood Buddha. This Buddha was sculpted from 24 blocks of wood in 1956, and is a replicable of a Tang dynasty original.

Again, shooting from outside the door, I was able to get a pretty good picture of the huge Buddha. Many Chinese were buying incense and bowing and praying in all parts of the park area, but especially in front of this building and inside before the Buddha.

Three hour bus ride to Shanghai--then to dinner--nice dinner with ice cream (!) and back to hotel. At least we have 2 nights here and can sort baggage.

After breakfast we went to the Bund, a river walk with great views of the city center, including the tallest building in the world, 101 stories.

Below is a part of the Shanghai skyline, including the quasi-phallic Oriental Pearl TV Tower on the left, and the world's tallest building. The angle of this picture makes the Pearl Tower seem taller, but the 101-story office building is the slim rectangular building just to the right of center, which looks as if it has a slot cut out of the top section--which it does. The locals call it "the can opener", and you can see why. This sector of the city on the east bank of the Huangpu River is called Pudong, and is Shanghai's newest district. While Beijing is China's political capital, Shanghai is it's commercial center, and much business activity takes place in Pudong. Shanghai has the highest average income per household in China, and boasts a growing middle class anxious to enjoy a higher standard of living.

Rainbow, our guide, told us she comes to Shanghai several times a year and the skyline changes with every visit. We saw cranes, steamshovels, and other evidence of construction on every hand. This city of 17 milion--17 million!--people, the largest city in China, is surging into the 21st century with a growth spurt that astounds even the locals. (But you still can't drink the tap water!)
A local woman was selling postcards on the Bund. I bought a clutch of postcards and asked her to pose with me for a picture. She got the last laugh, though, because the postcards were at least several months old and do not feature the 101-story "can opener". By the time they come out with a set of postcards that do feature this unusual structure, other buildings will no doubt have risen to change the skyline once again. As Beijing went into a building frenzy leading up to the 2008 Olympiad, Shanghai is racing to complete shopping malls, hotels, and towering office buildings in preparation for hosting the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

If you turn away from the river and Pudong and look across the Bund, you see the hotels, banks, offices and clubs that flourished during the time Shanghai was colonized by the British, French, and Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The contrast between the staid, older buildings and the gleaming towers across the river is fascinating.

Then we went to a silk carpet and tapestry place. Impressive. We ate lunch there, and guess what? Shopped some more.

This woman at her loom is a skilled artisan. The guide told us it is becoming difficult to recruit young women to learn the art of weaving silk tapestry and rugs. The painstaking process takes years to learn and larger pieces, such as large carpets and tapestries, can take years to make. The term "lost art" comes to mind.

This is a small portion of the hundreds of gorgeous items on display and for sale. Most were far beyond my pocketbook, but I fell in love with a 48x 24 inch tapesty of pandas in a bamboo grove. The black and white animals against the subtle greens, browns, pinks, and soft blues of the background charmed my credit card right out of my purse! I gulped when I signed the charge slip, but now, as I look at it hanging above my desk, I know I made the right decision. I'll treasure it for the rest of my life and it will pass on to my daughter, a true family heirloom.

After lunch we went to "China Town", the mall-like bazaar.

Below are two shots of the Yu Gardens Bazaar. The locals do indeed call it "China Town". It's a bit of a tourist trap, but we had fun wandering among the stalls and shops, bargaining with the vendors over silk scarves, caps, robes, and other souvenir items. It was in the bazaar that we saw the amazing (to us) sight of a Chinese mother holding her toddler over a trash can while he peed through the slit in the bottom of his pants. Who needs diapers when children's clothes are designed this way!! What a practical solution for both mother and child.




Had dinner at a nice restaurant (picture below) and then drove to the Shanghai Circus to see the "Era" show.

Wow! Talk about impressive! Such talent, grace, strength, agility, and beauty! An absolutely stunning show!

The Era show is currently one of Shanghai's premier attractions for locals and tourists alike. An incredible combination of acrobatics, juggling, tumbling, flying, and a finale of seven motorcycles zipping around the inside of a wire cage with lights flashing and engines roaring--sounds weird, but believe me, it was eye-popping and breathtaking!

Now back in hotel room, exhausted and dreading tomorrow morning--packing! How will I get all this stuff into 2 suitcases?

Here ends the China travel journal. I had to do some very creative packing, but I managed with my original two suitcases and carry on, unlike some of my comrades who bought extra suitcases to carry home their loot.

I must add a bit about our trip to the Shanghai airport. Our luggage went by bus, but we went on the Maglev Train. Quoting from Eyewitness Travel's Beijing & Shanghai, "This is, for the moment at least, the fastest you'll ever travel without flying. " German built and smooth as Chinese silk, this magnetically elevated super train travels the 18.6 miles from Shanghai's eastern suburbs to Pudong Airport in under 8 minutes! At one point the train reaches the speed of 267 mph! It is surprisingly quiet and the ride is so even you could sip from a full cup of hot coffee without spilling a drop.

We wait in the station for the Maglev Train to arrive...

...and here she is. Passengers arriving from the airport disembark on one side while those of us enroute to the airport clamour aboard on the other. And we're off!

In each car a digital monitor flashes the time and the speed in kilometers.

We arrived at the Pudong Airport almost before we left Shanghai! What a fantastic way to wind up a fantastic trip.

I hope you've enjoyed my blogging about our trip to China. It was fun to relive it in the writing.