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Published: July 11th 2011
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0629988G2HGuilin
on the way to the airport Wednesday 6/29—our last in-country flight.
This morning we had on the initial itinerary to take a flight to Shanghai and then take a bus 2.5 hours to Hangzhou. However, they were able to get us on a direct flight to Hangzhou (they don’t necessarily run every day). We went to the hotel and checked in, had a couple of hours rest before dinner. Casterbridge (the tour arranging company) treated us to dinner this evening. We were taken to a restaurant in a hotel for dinner which was good because we’d had lunch at KFC at the Guilin airport kind of early and would have needed dinner, I think. Another good meal—something different every time and the group chatted for a while after eating. They kind of had to ask us to leave because they were closing!
Seven centuries ago, Marco Polo pronounced Hangzhou "the finest, most splendid city in the world, where so many pleasures may be found that one fancies oneself to be in Paradise." Information from our guide (on a fairly bumpy bus ride so my handwriting was atrocious when I tried to transcribe it): The West Lake area has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site
(the view of it from the 25th floor of the hotel was stunning). The Qin Dynasty first Emperor linked all the states, unifying the country, and came here by boat in 200 BC. Hang=boat; zhou=city. Marco Polo returned to Venice (after 20? Years here) and was accused of being a spy and jailed. His Notes of Marco Polo is what the quote was taken from. He took 16 pages to describe Hongzhou which was the capital of the (South) Song Dynasty. On the way in, we passed what looked like Victorian townhouses but which are single family homes. They were private homes of local farmers who have 2 houses in this area and were fairly new. Lots of local people who moved to the U.S./Europe before the revolution have returned here to retire. “No matter if the tree is 1000 meters tall, eventually the leaves fall to the roots”. They have brought different housing expectations back with them. Because of economic reform, people can choose their own business, can choose to go to the city and start a business, ‘cottage factory’, cooperate with the supermarkets to avoid the tax collectors and give them ‘happy money’ at the new year. Farmers
are now growing rare flowers and trees for sale, rather than rice, to make more profit. There are 5 bridges and 2 tunnels to cross the river. Population 8 million, a medium-sized city, lots of construction (as our first guide said, the ‘crane’ is the national bird).
Politically important: 1 of the 8 ancient capitals of China, during the Song Dynasty. The Song was the most prosperous dynasty in Chinese history. 1) Nixon signed the Shanghai Communique in Hangzhou (but everyone knew where Shanghai was); 2) Mao had a villa on the Lake; 3) capital of Souchow Province which is the China export capital—lots of factories—very busy; 4) West Lake, tourism and World Heritage Site. Now an autonomous region of the PRC.
Skyscrapers and garden style apts, don’t want to ruin the view, government suggests no more than 8 floors high near the river. Very difficult for developers to build because the land is expensive and the height limit in the old city. West Lake has older style buildings and villas. Also, buildings older than 50 years may not be pulled down. McDonald’s is referred to as the American Embassy by the students.
The Great Wall is
a great feat of construction but the Grand Canal has been more valuable. Connecting the Yalu to Beijing to Hangzhou, the Grand Canal, built over centuries, from Han to Ming Dynasty, brings coal from north to the south and takes rice, silk, textiles, from the south to the north. The south needs heat (coal) for steam for making silk.
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