Grant and I had initially planned to go see the World Expo again today, but in an unexpected turn of events we ended up getting offered a ride to Hangzhou. So, in what I’ve learned is typical fashion for Grant and me when traveling (read: being spontaneous, which is a good thing), we decided to spend the day in Hangzhou rather than battle it out with other World Expo visitors.
We explored around West Lake a little before climbing a trail that went through this forested area a little aways from the Lake. The trail led us to the Baochu pagoda, which is this really awesome pagoda on top of this plateau-type thing. It’s definitely a hike to get up there, but the view of Hangzhou as well as the pagoda is totally worth it. (Thank God for that, because Grant and I were not a pretty sight by the time we got to the pagoda, due to the extreme humidity. Read: we were disgusting.) We climbed some more tall rocks that were near the pagoda for an even higher and better view of the city, which I loved.
It was on the rocks that we made our first set of Chinese friends. They were fascinated by Grant in particular, and right off the bat they guessed that I was at least part Chinese. This fascinated me; back home, most people don’t guess that unless I point it out to them. Even though their English was just about as good as our Mandarin, we managed to communicate and had a good time enjoying the view and taking photos.
After our hike, we explored around West Lake some more before deciding to go find a teahouse. Hangzhou is most famous for Longjing tea, as it has the best climate in the world to grow that particular kind of tea. So, going to a teahouse in Hangzhou was an obvious choice. We decided to go to Leifeng tea house, which was supposed to be near the Leifeng pagoda. Well, we went to the pagoda and did the requisite pagoda-y stuff, but we couldn’t find the teahouse ANYWHERE. We walked all over, consulted every map we could find, used our broken Mandarin to ask for directions (with varying degrees of success; even if they understood our question, more often than not we did not understand the answer), and did everything we possibly could to find that damn teahouse. In the end, we declared defeat. I’m convinced the teahouse doesn’t even exist, because Grant’s map skills haven’t failed us yet.
There’s also a story from our Hangzhou adventure that involves dumplings, onions, soy sauce, and being Caucasian in a Chinese establishment that not many Caucasians go to, but I don’t even know where to begin with that one. I think Grant might write about it in his blog, so I’ll link to the entry if he does.
Also, photos soon, I promise. I just need to get my butt in gear and upload them to my computer from my camera.
Post a Comment