Hangzhou, China

Houston has about 4 million people...and most people have heard of it. This weekend I took a trip to what I pictures as a sleepy little Chinese village, Hangzhou. Turns out this "little" town has 7 million people and growing!! China is so incredible in this way...there are people everywhere. You can be in the middle of the countryside and there will be a cluster of 50 matching buildings, 30 stories high...and they are apartments! Where do these people work?? Where do they buy groceries?? Do they ever leave their little area??

Here's a map of my travels so far...

Anyway...on to the day in Hangzhou. We met in the hotel at 8am and had a 3 hour drive in front of us. There were just 4 other people on the tour. A couple from NYC that are Hungarian and Chinese. A lady on business from the Phillipines. And another guy here for work, from the UK. We were a pretty diverse little group. :) The drive only ended up taking about 2 hours...and it was very pretty and interesting to gaze out the window.

We arrived in the town and went straight to the lake. There, we had a traditional boat waiting for us. We cruised around the lake. The view was gorgeous...but there was still alot of the trademark smog that you find throughout the areas of China...the places I've been at least. There was a nice pagoda on the hill and it was pretty neat that you can see the city on one shore and the gardens on the other. There were also these 3 pillars in the lake that the guide showed us are the photo on the back of the 1 RMB bill!

One thing I did not escape on this trip is the Houston heat...man, this place is HOT! I was a sweaty mess my the time we got off the boat! Then it was time to walk around the gardens. They were beautiful, with lots of koi ponds, flowers, pretty walkways and buildings. Here are a few pics all around the gardens. We even saw a few people drawing the nice landscape. I also had a little snack to cool down that was orange flavored ice cubes...they were super sweet...but so tasty!

From here, we went to lunch at a hotel situated right in the park. The food was delicious and pretty traditional. The flavors were some of the best I've had in China. When I went to the "ladie's room", that's how it was spelled on the door :), I saw this photo that reminded me of a picture my friend's grandma painted...that kinda looked like human eyes on a cat body. Always creeped my mom out just a tad!

After lunch, we jumped back in the van and went over to the "Buddah Temple". I've been to a few temples in Taiwan and China...but this one was the most grand. The statues inside were huge and beautifully maintained. The guide explained that you can tell that Buddahs, like people, are happy when they eat alot and have big tummies...seems like a pretty good philosophy. :)

We heard stories of the Buddah, its protectors, the monks and one monk in particular that lived at this temple. He is shown here...and you can see how huge the copper Buddah behind him is...the man in front is larger than life sized.

While we were at the temple, we also saw ironically, a praying mantis. I had never seen one in person and he was so incredible. This smart little bugger would follow our finger anywhere we pointed! Our group took him off this pole and put him back on the bushes so he could have a little snack...and blend in perfectly!

We then got to witness a ceremony with a family praying for their ancestors. The monks were chanting and what appeared to be 3 brothers were praying together. It was very sweet.

Our last stop of the day was at a traditional tea house in the Mei jia wu village...it was actually an entire little tea village. Most of the people in this town are farmers and have tiny tea houses above their homes. We learned how to tell if tea is high or low quality and how to drink it politely with our pinkies out. Our teacher was so adorable...she had learned many English cliches and made all of us laugh! "A cup of green tea a day keeps the doctor away." Toward the end, it became a bit of an infomercial...you buy one mommy sized jar and get 2 babies...all for one low price! Haha...but she was cute enough to pull it off and suck you right in!

This was a neat tea blossom. The wrap the leaves up in elaborate patterns and they "bloom" when they hit the hot water.

We then shopped a little in the tea house store. I got a great watercolor of the lake..love getting pics of places I've been. And also got a book on Buddhism in China...it had pics of some of the temples and a little history. Seemed interesting. :) The best item I didn't pick up was the Waxi Meatbone...mmm....doesn't that sound delicious!

We then boarded the bus. I chatted with the guy from the UK for a while about our travels, then popped in my headphones and relaxed and stared out the window while listening to John Mayer's acoustic stuff...ahhh, so relaxing. We even had a little bit of a blue sky to enjoy on the way home!

I had great plans of walking Nanjing Road that night and doing a little shopping, but I was exhausted and decided to just stay in and have my dinner come to me! Yea for room service!