Plum Blossoms are Budding and Blooming

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I had been looking for things to due around the Hangzhou area as I have gotten a case of cabin fever with this dreary, gray, wet and cold weather we have been experiencing. Ms. Gao told me last week Hangzhou is famous for plum blossoms and that we should go view them at the Hangzhou Botanical Garden.



Since this is our last term teaching in China I really want to take advantage of everything that is offered to us. I found a link online and discovered the entrance fee was only 10RMB=$1.59 per person. I emailed Sean and Galyna, Oral English teachers at our past school HDU, to see if they would like to join us on the adventure. Sure enough they did and we had a splendid time on Sunday afternoon.



We told them to meet us at the North Gate on Yu Gu Lu (Road) at 1:15pm. I texted them that we had arrived and then my phone rang, it was Galyna. They had taken the public bus there and didn't know where we were, as their are multiple entrances to the gardens. Pete asked Galyna to give her phone to the worker at the gate they were at, with his amazing Chinese skills he got the name of the gate and off we went on our bikes to locate them. (nothing is ever that simple in China).



We entered the park back at the North Gate and asked "Mei hua, zai na li" meaning where are the plum blossoms. This nice gentlemen with a fancy Canon camera pointed us along and we followed him to the Lingfeng part of the gardens where there are over 500+ plum trees. Sadly, the cold weather we have been experiencing affected the blossoms as there were only a few random trees in blossom. I could only imagine how beautiful this area would have been if all the trees were blooming.



Galyna told us when she woke up at 8:15 that there was snow covering the ground and bushes this morning but gone by 9:15. We missed it all as we awoke at 11am. Oops!



After wandering around the botanical gardens for a few hours we then went to lunch at Green Tea Restaurant. We arrived there at 3:45pm to learn they opened at 4:30pm. Pete got a number for us as there were others already waiting around. This top rated restaurant is located in the tea terrace area west of West Lake.



We had a lovely time with our friends from Ireland and Ukraine and got to experience another Chinese adventure. I won't bore you with my ramblings as I believe the photos speak for themselves.

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Comments

[Mom]

As cold as it has been there, it surprised me there were any blossoms! Of course, I was not surprised that Pete was riding another animal!