A Final Day in Hangzhou

Today was another hugely successful day. In the morning, the travelling trio mapped out a rough plan of what we wanted to conquer. We rickshawed in two separate three-wheeled cars (i.e. a cart pulled by a man on a bicycle), with Gord and Jan in one car, and myself in the other. Our first destination was The Broken Bridge, then the YingLin Temple. After we got off, as we were nearing the bridge, a local HZ woman saw us looking at our map, and asked us where we were going. I told her our plan, and she replied that we should go to the Longjing sellers in the mountains (where they harvest the famous HZ Longjing tea, it's also where the locals go to buy their tea. After she left us, another woman came to us (me) and gave similar advice... but with a more complete path. Her new path was to bus to the Longjing tea mountain, then walk down to the Nine Creeks waterfall, then rent a "bread car" around to the Six Harmony Pagoda, take a bus to the Leifeng Pagoda, take a boat onto the West Lake and the islands on the lake, then cab to YingLin, and finally back to the Broken Bridge. We thought about her advice, and decided to take it seriously -- so we hoped on the No. 27 bus up to Longjin mountain. On the bus, I asked a woman beside me how long the bus ride would take, and we started chatting. She was getting off at the same stop, and offered to show us where to go, explaining that the best place to buy Longjing tea is up the mountain (this was becoming a familiar comment). We got off the bus and headed down an old street scattered with old houses. We talked along the way; she suggested the same path as the woman had before we got on the bus. She took us to her mother's house, who happened to sell tea. Figures. Nevertheless, on the cold day, the warm tea was great to induce some heat into our bodies and circulate blood into Gord's frozen hands. We were taken aback by the authentic main corridor of this woman's house. It was a small room, with tea baskets and harvesting materials. Most amazing, in my opinion. Some more tea was bought, and money was spent.

We continued down the road, which soon turned from old pavement to older cobblestone. On each side of the path were hillsides lined with tea bushes (I think that's what they are). We crossed over several dibbling streams of water, and eventually came to the Nine Creeks. Our two RMB entry fee seemed almost too much to see what we came to see. Aside from a waterfall, there wasn't too much else. There're stairs that go further up the mountain, but we chose not to climb them out of laziness and after discovering that the source of the waterfall was a small puddle 10 metres up, filled with water pumped from below.

We hired a "bread car", which is essentially a mini minivan, costing 10 RMB to get to the famous Six Harmony Pagoda. As I spoke to the drive along the way, he changed his mind and decided to charge us 10 RMB to get to the Leifeng Pagoda (one step further on our path) because I told him that we are from Canada, and he has a relative in Canada. Sure. So we took a few moments to take some pictures at the Six Harmony Pagoda and were on our way. The driver also explained that it was the cheapest time to buy pearls right now, and I remembered that my mom wanted some pearls as well. So he took us to a couple stores, from which he'd get some sort of kickback, I bet. No one does this free of charge out of the goodness of their heart. Not in China, not in my opinion. Some pearls were bought, some money spent. Finally, the driver dropped us off at Leifeng Pagoda, a pagoda with a long history, but was burned down in 1955 by the Japanese then recently rebuilt (finished last Sept/Oct).

The Leifeng Pagoda was amazing. Each of the four levels provides a spectacular view of the surrounding areas, West Lake, the mountains, and the city. Each level is also superbly decorated with wood carvings, paintings, and scriptures on the walls. Because of the recent reconstruction, it's also a state-of-the-art pagoda and one for the laziest of folks. There is an escalator running upwards outside the pagoda to get to its base. Then there are two 3-story elevators to get to the first level of the pagoda. Finally, another 4 story elevator takes you up the middle of the pagoda to any of the first 3 levels.

Because of the late time and the cold weather, we decided to skip the boat ride and taxi to the famous Yinglin Temple. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the doors were closed. Darn it. So we taxied back near West Lake to Yue Fei's Tomb. The 25 RMB entrance was pricy for what was contained within the building walls.

As it started to darken, we stepped into a sword shop. After much bargaining, some sharp objects were bought, some money spent. Then we had dinner with a guy who used to work with Spectrum's distributor, Andy, and his friend Charlie. And the night pretty much ended after that.

Off to Suzhou tomorrow morning with an early train at 9am.

Kevin, signing off from China... the place where cell phones should never be silenced or ignored, a CD/VCD/DVD store owner insisted that there is no such thing as "wai guo" (Western) karaoke discs, a policeman will turn you back when you're already halfway past the middle of an intersection and tell you to take the sky walk, I can get a better price because I'm Chinese, locals are more than willing to tell you what the good places to visit around the area are, and I can spit freely on the sidewalks.