Beatilying Hangzhou

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This past weekend was our second attempt at visiting the Beautiful West Lake, and I'm proud to say it was a resounding success. Even though this time our train tickets were a class lower than last time, and we stayed in the hostel dorms instead of the private room- it was still far superior to the last harrowing encounter. Every traveler in China can tell you many horror stories about taking the "hard seat" on the train- which is the lowest class you can buy except "standing hard seat"... but I didn't think it was so bad. Well, for 2 hours it wasn't so bad... if you can handle all the people around you loudly eating sunflower speeds and spitting the shells out everywhere while staring at you without blinking or looking away... then it's great. I think I'll be taking the sleeper to Beijing though... I shudder to think of all the sunflower seeds a train car full of Chinese people could eat in 20 hours.

Hangzhou was lovely. We walked around the lake, walked across the Su Causeway, climbed a mountain on the other side, watched a elementary school class perform a song and dance routine inexplicably on the middle of the mountain on a Saturday, passed several Chinese bands playing on our way up the mountain singing in that fantastic old Chinese way that sounds really pretty... but at the same time like cats dying and reminds me of that nightmare sequence in The Fiddler on the Roof where the wife of the butcher comes back from the dead... at the top of the mountain we were pretty tired, but felt ashamed by the hoards of old people enthusiastically doing calisthenics and kung fu.. the view was nice but I forgot my camera, we went to Yellow Dragon Cave and messed around, appreciating the cold fresh air- not appreciating the piles of trash in the corners, walked back down the mountain, had tasteless noodle soup with a tasteless fried egg in it, walked around in a park where about 70 brides were having their pictures taken in the ugliest collection of wedding dresses that I personally have ever seen.. being watched by bored looking grooms in awful white 70's throwback tuxedos with the big bell sleeves that have 20 buttons going up the side... as we were walking around the park we kept thinking that we heard someone playing the piano in the distance, but then discovered that it was actually small speakers broadcasting soft piano music throughout the park (which was very large), walked around the fake old town which looks remarkably like every single China Town in every American city that I have been- including Oklahoma City.. but was still far superior to the fake old town in Shanghai, took the bus back the hostel, drank some beers in the garden at the hostel while trying to ignore some very loud and enthusiastic Canadian girls who talked about how "America was so like going downhill" and actually ate the poisonous looking barbecue that the hostel set out which consisted of a plate of whole fish, chicken hearts, chicken feet and octopus tentacles. The next day we walked around the lake some more, thought about buying a Chinese lantern at a hippie tourist store and decided against it, bought some playing cards instead where each card displays a different propoganda poster from the Mao era and simultaneously telling the history of the Chinese Communist party from 1949-1966... or at least a very strange version of it.. My favorite was "China and Albania unite to form an unstoppable force" but John's was "Especially in the field of Science and Technology the Soviet Union almost became China's beacon" , then we ate lunch and took the train back to Shanghai. I read The Godfather which I bought from a fake book stall for $1, John read War and Peace.

We had so much fun, we decided to go for another weekend trip to Suzhou for Thanksgiving... which is sometimes described as the Venice of China. Hmm...

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Comments

[Phoebe Miles]

Love the Titles
Can't decide which commemorative title I like better...John's or your's. Both are treasures! I am leaning towards Albania...the unstoppable force. glad the second trip was more successful, despite the bad barbque