China: Hangzhou 杭州

Hangzhou 杭州 is a very SCENIC place. A Total Contrast to Shanghai. The place is cleaner, and even the air smells crisp & fresher. The temperature hovered below 10°C. Nice in the daytime and very shiok holding a cup of piping hot Chocolate or tea in your hand, sitting by the lake and watch the world go by. However, it gets foggy by dusk and there's not much left to see even when you are @ the top of the Pagoda.

Our taxi driver/local guide (QiaoFeng) was very entertaining, telling us the legends linked to the historical places and the famous people: JiGong (济公), YueFei (岳飞), Su DongPo, Justice Bao, Liang ShanBo & Zhu YingTai (梁山伯与祝英台), the White Snake vs the Monk who imprisoned her in the pagoda (白蛇传), Mao ZeDong, etc, etc. It was really embarrassing as the Qns we asked revealed our ignorance on Chinese history and those famous literary works. All our 'knowledge' of the legends mainly came from watching those HKG drama serials starring Tony Leung, Andy Lau & co, etc. *blush*

The Hangzhou native is proud of his hometown and constantly reminded us that Hangzhou is "paradise" in China: 上有天堂,下有苏杭 ("in heaven there is paradise and on earth there are Hangzhou and Suzhou"). Hangzhou is the BEST, far far superior than suzhou in all aspects. The proverbs put suzhou in front because geographically suzhou is slightly north of hangzhou. :P

The beautiful westlake (西湖) and its surrounding grounds give the place this idyllic image & and sense of tranquility. And Brilliant me left the camera battery charger with the luggage in Shanghai. *bleah* Willow trees everywhere... makes you think you travelled back in time, walking the streets, crossing the bridges that those folkz in the legends did. Your imagination gets more vivid with the guide's animated stories and he has a knack of painting the place until it sounds so romantic (oriental style) :P
There's a famous 谚语 on Hangzhou's westlake:
1. 长桥不长 : one of the fables has it that there's this lovelorn couple took 3 days 3 nites pacing this bridge before they went their separate ways. In reality, that bridge is only a few metres long, no need to walk 3days3nites.
2. 断桥不断 : This bridge named 断桥 because in winter when it snows, the snow would cover the 2 sides of the bridge, and it looks like it's chopped off from the banks.
3. ... ehhh.... i forgot the 3rd one :Pp i think it's 孤山不孤
According to QiaoFeng, the lake has different mood/atmosphere in each season. Hmmm... i don't mind coming back in Spring, Summer, Autumn to see the difference. : )

The SILK Road...
Should have spent more time @ the museum's exhibition section to learn more about silk instead of debating which shawl/scarves to buy as souvenirs and then realized that it's 15min to museum's closing time! :P The experts @ the National Silk Museum taught us how to distinguish real pure silk from the fakes:
1. If you burn silk with a flame, it leaves fine ash. The ash should be black and crispy/brittle.
2. When lit, it smells like burning hair (Both substances mainly consist of a fibrous protein ¨C fibroin in the case of silk and keratin in the case of hair.)
3. When you take the flame away it stops burning.
Erm, Having said that... Don't think we can tell the silk shop owner that i need to burn the material to make sure that it's authentic, ya?

Dragon's Well Tea...
Got my precious premium 龙井茶 tea leaves at the tea plantation village : )
The most expensive batch is the 1st harvest during March/April (just before QingMing peiod), with the prices going as high as RMB3,000 for 1,000g!!! *Fallz off chair* I got mine @ RMB800... a considerable discount because mine is harvested late in the season... the tailend of the decent harvest, that's why. But the tea still taste very nice. : )
Learnt how to taste the different grades of tea, and watching the tea leaves 'dance' in the clear glass of hot water. The temperature of the water should be about 80°C, Never brew your tea leaves with boiling water coz you'll spoil the tea.