Today we toured the city of Hangzhou, population 12 million! Just a medium sized city... Ha. Ha. Hangzhou is famous for the West Lake. It's the center of the city, surrounded by gardens and trees. There are 3 man made islands and 1 natural island in the lake. You can rent bicycles or paddle boats to tour around the lake. We took a tour boat around for a half hour. From the lake you can see the two main pagodas in the city. One is over 1,000 year old. The other was rebuilt in the last 100 years in the spot of an original pagoda that fell down. We visited the new one where you take an escalator up the hill to the base and an elevator up to the top of the pagoda. The view was magnificent from the top.
After lunch we visited a local tea farm. The farm grounds were beautiful. Terraced rows of tea bushes contoured along the rolling hills. We had a tea sampling where they told us about the different qualities of tea. They begin picking tea leaves in March and finish in early May. The leaves picked in the first few weeks are the best quality and called Emperor Tea which id not exported. The leaves picked later in the season are graded A and B. Any tea leaves that are broken are considered tea bag tea... What we get like Lipton's. Of course we got a sales pitch about all the health benefits. You should brew green tea leaves with warm water, not boiling water and drink it 30 minutes after you eat. Green tea dissolves fats an oils which can help with weight loss. It is good for preventing cancer and is treatment for high blood pressure and diabetes. I bought a tin of the Emperor Tea and got some smaller tins to divide it up and share.
We then went to visit the riches man in the Ching Dynasty's home. It was built around 1850. The man had one wife and 12 concubines (women). He had 19 children and over 100 servants. The home reminded me of Hurst Castle a bit in that it was huge with many ornate decorations. There were many rooms to the two story compound. In the center was a beautiful garden with walk paths and an opera house. I especially liked the blue glass windows but found out they were restored recently. The glass came from Germany or something...
We had dinner. Same old same old. Nothing too exciting. I hadn't exchanged very much cash at the first hotel and was glad I was able to get some more cash out of the ATM.
We convinced the tour guide to take us to the downtown area after dinner so we could experience the night life. We walked along the river. Saw a light water music show and took in the night life. There were people singing karaoke, line dancing, and playing instruments. It was so interesting to see how busy thugs were on a Tuesday. Also, how dressed up all the women were for a Tuesday night.
Another great day. Heading to a new city tomorrow.
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