Happy New Year everyone.
Sorry for the late greeting. The earthquake in Taiwan straits made me not be able to access my blog again. Hope the marine cable has been recovered.
We went to Hangzhou in the New Year. Hangzhou is the other city in the old saying - up there is paradise, down there are Su(Suzhou) and Hang (Hangzhou). Unfortunately, it was raining and very cold. The pictures I took are not very clear due to the ugly sky.
Hangzhou is located in the northern part of Zhejiang province, and about hours from Shanghai by train. It was set up as the capital of South Song Dynasty in 1129. Hangzhou is famous for the West Lake which is in the city centre.
A walkway around the West Lake.
There're two pieces of dikes on the lake - the Bai Di (White dike) and the Su Di (Su dike), named from two famous laterati Bai, Juyi (Tang Dynasty) and Su, Dongpo (Song Dynasty), who used to be officials in Hangzhou.
Bridge to Bai Di
A Bridge on Su dike
There are ten famous scenic spots around the lake and the mountains, include: Fish-Viewing Flora Harbor, Lotus in the County yard, Spring Dawn of Su Dike, Autumn Moon of smooth lake, Wave of willos with song of orioles, and Breaking bridge with fragmental snow.
Fish in Flora Harbor
Remains of Lotus in the County yard
Lingyin Temple (灵隐寺, "heart of the soul's retreat"), west of the West Lake, is an active Buddhist temple at the bottom of a hill. We went to pray for the luck in the new year.
Hangzhou is famous for the green tea Longjing (龙井 dragon bell). Longjing is regarded as the national tea and has four unique characters as the green color, the sweet scent, the mellow taste and the beautiful shape. The tealeaves are flat and straight in shape and yellowish emerald green in color. When picking the tealeaves, the arly season, the tender leaves and the diligent picker are very important. Tea is usually classified into thirteen grades and only the first three grades are top quality goods. Emperor Qianlong (Qing Dynasty) sampled the Longjing Tea during his tour to Hangzhou. The emperor conferred the title of Imperial tea upon the eighteen Longjing Tea trees in Longjing area. Hangzhou has a lot of elegant tea rooms which could really spend a good time with friends.
No guest in the cold rainy days
A leisure afternoon: Longjing Tea, mellon seeds and lotus root starch (mixed with hot water)
This is the retire life I want to have:
having morning exercise daily in a beautiful garden
Raising a pet who can speak
In China, holiday season is always linked with good foods. We went to two famous restaurants in Hangzhou. One is a well known traditional restaurant called LouWaiLou (Building outside building) http://www.louwailou.com.cn/english/INTRO.ASP. LouWaiLou is famous for four dishes: Westlake Vinegar Fish, Longjing Shrimp, Fried Bell and Beggar's Chicken.
Westlake Vinegar Fish
Longjing Shrimp
Fried Bell
We didn't order Begger's chicken cos' it is too big.
Another one we went is call Waipo Jia (Grandma's Kitchen), a very popular new style Hangzhou dish restaurant. It is said the restaurant is always lined up. We went at 2pm after having tea but the restaurant was taking a afternoon break from 2 to 4:30pm. We went back again at 4:30, and more than half of the seats are already occupied.
I like this dessert best - mashed green bean
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