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This weekend we were luck enough to be able to take a three day long trip to Hangzhou, often referred to as china’s paradise on earth. It was a three hour bus ride away but when we got off the bus we saw the first stretch of blue sky we had seen in weeks. The city surrounds a vast and gorgeous lake called West Lake and boasts more then 2000 years of history. We were lucky enough to be able to take a boat ride around the lake to take photos and enjoy the nice breeze (it was easily 100 degrees outside).
It was humbling to see the years upon years of history and culture built here. America is an extremely young nation and it is everlastingly refreshing to be in a country who takes its culture seriously and prides themselves on tradition and beauty.
After the boat ride we were able to walk up a large pagoda to get a spectacular view of the city. This particular pagoda was built in 990 B.C. (now that’s old!) but burnt down in the recent century but then again rebuilt in 2002. In order to preserve the remnants of
the old pagoda they built an entirely new pagoda on top of the remains while making the bottom floor into a museum type structure where you can see the original bricks and witness the history of the place itself. It was perplexing to think about how they made thousands of these perfect bricks without the equipment we have today.
The next day we were able to get on another boat tour, this time of Xixi national wetlands park. It was blisteringly hot but that did not taint the beauty of the park as our small boat wove through narrow parks of the lake and squeezed by tropical green foliage. It was certainly a breath of fresh air from the business of Shanghai.
Later that night we were taken to He Fang Street, a famous street filled with souvenirs of all kinds. I was happy to find some hilarious communist postcards which went along the lines of “Mao is our guiding red sun and we will follow his path forever” complete with enthusiastic drawings of young Chinese people pumping their fists into the air. The vendors weren’t as pushy as other places we had gone and the
mood was more relaxing, so that was also a nice break from the norm of China. The sky was lit up with the most brilliant purple lightening which made the atmosphere unreal and I really felt like I was in China (you sometimes forget in Shanghai).
All in all it was a pretty successful weekend trip but surprisingly enough I was a little relived to get back to Shanghai and my dorm room. I guess you can call any place home if you are flexible, no?
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T.I.C.
Great post!