Okay, since I just put on the two entries below, I thought I would add a little China update too.  So this is day four in China.  We went to see the Bauchu Pagoda, also called "Precious Stone Hill Floating in Cloud."  It is 45.3 m. hight and was originally built in the period of the Kingdom of Wuyue (893-978).  The Precious Stone Hill it is built on was formed 100 million years ago by volcanic eruption.  It is made of tuff and rhyolite and its rock contains jade, hence the "Precious Stone".  When the sun is rising or setting, the hill is immersed in sunglow, hence "Floating in Rosy Cloud". 

 

The hills are covered in pathways with lots and lots of steps.The steps seem to go on continually, it seems forever.  Finally near the top are all these volcanic rocks.  Many of the steps are worn smooth with time and in some places are barely there.  All of the pathways are surrounded by lush growth, like a forest.  Very quiet and peaceful in there.  Between the rocks at the top are more pathways, some you can only go single file.

 

We continued on until we came to the Jingshan Temple.  We couldn't go in as it was already closed, which was really disappointing.  Just Jess and I went up to the temple.  The temple was founded in the Tang Dynasty.  It is the ancestrial temple of the Rinzai Sect of Japanese Buddhism.  Would have really like to see the inside, but Jess and I enjoyed our exploration of the perminater. 

 

When we came back down it was growing dark and there are lights all along the trail.  As we couldn't see too much else, we started heading back down the trails.  As we were going along down the mountain, all of a sudden the trail leads past a house, someones home.  Probably been there for 1000's of years, handed down from generation to generation.  When we were finally back down we were at West Lake again.  The lights on the lake were beautiful.  Took a picture and it even turned out. 

 

So that was the end of day 4.  Lots of walking for me as I was up and out before the rest of the crew showed up - which was noonish.  I didn't come to China to sleep my days away, so walked for hours in the am until the others surfaced and then did all the climbing of the mountain in the afternoon.  Was glad to hit the shower and the bed at the end of the day.

Stole this picture off of J.'s blog - my little Princess!!!!!   Okay, she'll be giving me a hard time over that comment. They had a big English Festival at the school with everyone putting on plays - all in English and they made all the foreign teachers put on a play too.  So this is one of the pic's of J in the play, too cute, so had to steal it and post it here for all my bloggers!

 

I don't think I mentioned the doves I heard cooing every day.  What a lovely sound to wake up to and hear throughout the day.

 

Also there are very few bugs in Hangzhou.  Saw maybe two mosquitoes during my whole trip, and a few flies, but not many.  Not like here, thats for sure.  Never realized how many bugs and flying insects we have.  In the daytime its not bad here, but at night the mosquitoes come out and you can't sit out for very long or you get bitten and that's not good for me since they give me big welts. 

 

Also, don't think I mentioned yet that there is no tipping in China.  That sure is a nice thing.  If you did leave money say at a restaurant, they would come running after you and give it back to you.  So you pay the price asked and no tips to anyone.  Kind of refreshing - think we should adopt that policy.

 

Except for the crazy taxi rides I was never afraid in China - maybe that's a weird comment.  I guess I should say I always felt safe while I was there.  I mean, took the usual precautions with money and purse etc., but oh just don't know - it's hard to explain, but anyway it was a good feeling.  Many times we were in the midst of huge crowds, but there was never anything threatening about them or the people around us. 

 

The cities are quite clean also.  They make a real effort to keep them tidy and there is lots of green space.  Everywhere there are trees, shrubs  and flowers planted along the roads in the city and along the freeways also.  This is pleasing to the eye as well as good for the enviroment in the big cities especially.  Since there are so many people, there are lots of them available to clean streets, cut and care for the shrubs and plants.    Although there is some smog in Hangzhou, it really depends on the day and there is also a big effort being made to move the industries out of the big cities and thereby clean up the air somewhat.  I guess then you get smog in the countryside.  But who are we to talk - just look at the smog in Vancouver on many days and not to mention Toronto. 

 

J. started an Enviroment Club with some of her students - so its good to know that the kids are interested and will do their part and hopefully help clean up the air for the future.  Of course even here we have bad air days, but again the cause is industry and if we can't get the big companies to reduce their pollutants, then we will always have this problem.  Yet, we can still keep doing our part in planting as much greenery as possible.

 

Okay - that's my little speech for the day. 

 

Not posting any other pictures today - figure you had enough to look at in the last two entries!!!

 

That's it for today -

 

 

See blog entry below on Shaoxing.

 

Here are some more pictures taken in Shaoxing.  As you can see we saw a lot that day.  Oh, the memories.  And there are still more, but not posting them tonight, maybe tomorrow. 

 

So is anyone actually checking out my blog?  Know that J. and Cherry do.  Leave me a comment!

 

Just love the buildings and the architecture.  G. loves it too so took many of these for him.  Notice the intricate painting of the some of the eaves on the inside of the buildings.

Today we were up super early as we had to catch a bus at 7:30 am to take us to the main bus terminal, where we had to catch a cab to get us to the out of town bus terminal by 9:00 am.  One of those times where we were glad for the crazy taxi drivers who beat the odds and got us there in time.  There we caught the bus to Shaoxing.  Actually it took longer to get to the bus, than it took to get to Shaoxing.  The bus was for sitting only - no standing and air conditioned, so a really nice one hour drive to Shaoxing.  Once we arrived we had to take taxi's to our first destination which was Lu Xun's former residence.  Lu Xun was one of China's best know modern writers. (1881-1936).  WE wandered through there, took some pictures of the streets, and looked at souveniers.

 

We were in one of the shops looking at things and I was trying to get Jess's attention to show her something and her head was in the clouds I guess.  So I said - Jessamyn - really loud and suddenly three chinese people around me are all yelling  "Jessamyn".  Was that ever funny.  Of course that got her attention.  Those people seemed to really like the sound of her name!

 

Then we went for lunch.  Jess ordered - Bamboo shoots, eggplant, squash, duck, soup and rice.  I didn't have any of the duck as ALL of the duck was there - feet, beak, head etc.  I tried a little of everything else, but not used to eating those kinds of things.  Thank goodness for rice - love rice! 

 

Then we needed to get taxi's for our next destination, but ended up get bicycle rickshaws.  Jess of course haggled over the prices!  That was fun, but still dangerous and felt sorry for the drivers.  Shaoxing only has about 4.3 million people, so it's busy, but believe it or not, you can tell that the pace is slower than in Hangzhou.  So we had our little ride and then walked to Shengli Lu Road.  We walked along this cobbled alleyway and saw the old inner city along the canels where hundreds of people still live in tiny houses that are ancient.  They travel on the canels, wash their clothes in the canels too.  Just hope they don't use it for drinking or cooking.  We walked and walked through the inner city, over bridges and along alleyways.  It is like a rabbit warren, little streets going every which way.  Hopefully you can tell from the pictures.  It was amazing, and right on their doorstep are high modern buildings.

 

When we had seen as much as we could, we hired taxi's again ( regular kind) and went to King Yu's Mausoleum.  I took a ton of pictures there.  So many neat things and lots of stairs to climb.  And the statue on top of the hill is fantastic. 

 

A little history for you.  The first Chinese Dynasty held power from the 21st to the 16 century b.c. and King Yu was the founder.  He is credited with having engineered massive flood control projects.  The temple and mausoleum was first constructed in the 16th century and was added to over the centuries.  It's about 4km southeast of the city and surrounded by lush trees.  Very park like, with pathways, ancient bells, old buildings etc.  Lots and lots of stairs going up the mountain to the huge statue.  We spent quite awhile there looking around. 

 

As we were quite far out, had a bit of a hassel getting cabs and we deceided we were going to have Western food for supper. So went to KFC and gobbled down some good old North American fries and chicken burgers and pop.  Tasted exactly like they make here. 

 

Then we wandered into town and to this ancient monument along a great wall and just took a slow pace looking around.  Then taxi's back to the bus station and then a nice ride back to Hangzhou.  Saw all kinds of fireworks on the bus ride - must be for their May Days celelbrations.  We all agreed we had a great day, but everyone was very tired by the end of it, so hope to sleep in a bit.

 

Also had my first experience with the squat toilets today.  Oh man - we don't know how lucky we are!

 

Here are some of the pictures from Shaoxing.

 

On our second day in China, in the morning Alice took us to get registered at the police station.  If you are staying in China, you have to register within 48 hours of landing with the local government.  So she took us on the bus to the local station and then had to do all the paperwork for us as their computers only recongnize chinese characters of course.  Alice is chinese and one of the teachers that Jess shares an office with.  A really lovely lady who went out of her way to help us.  Alice has been to Oxford and quite enjoyed England and its long history.  Had a chance to talk with her a lot and learned a lot about China from her and am grateful for that opportunity.  She was always very thoughtful and kind, despite going through some personal problems with her father-in-law being very ill. 

 

It was very hot again, walk a block and your clothes are stuck to you. 

 

Today we went to the Myth.  If you are ever in Hangzhou, look up this restaurant and mention Jess's name!!!  They love Jess.  This is the restaurant where Jess cooked Christmas dinner for about twenty people!  They have a western type menu and have been given receipes and much help in shopping and learning how to prepare dishes from Jess and others.  So we had lunch there today, I choose  European fare, German sausages, potatoes and saurkraut!!  Mmmm, it was good.  We were joined by Ryan and Wolf, so were quite the crowd.  We all really enjoyed Wolfs company, he is the German teacher at the school.  He has been to Tibet and so we were listening in rapt attention to his stories and he has a great sense of humour.  Ask Irene about our trip to the foot of Mt. Everest!! 

 

After our special lunch, we took another bus ride to West Lake.  Very beautiful there.  It is no wonder that Hangzhou is so proud of this lake.  It is peaceful ( yes even with all the people around).  We did a lot of walking around.  Lots of paths, gardens, pools - all kept clean and tidy.  We stopped at one spot to have a group photo and all of a sudden a chinese lady was in our group and her husband was taking a picture of her with us.  Well - that was the start, we must have had another 8 people stop and ask to have their picture taken with us.  They were all very polite about it and smiling and laughing.  So we are the total strangers in lots of pictures back in china!!  We felt like movie stars.  By the way, this happened a lot on the trip and it was kind of fun.  Then we saw a guard standing by the lake and so I thought it would be a good idea to ask if we could have our picture taken with him - so asked him through sign language and he wasn't quite sure and then some passerby figured it out and explained it to him.  He blushed so hard and then said okay and so we got a picture of me and Irene with him. 

 

Then walked back into the city centre and had dinner and walked around some more, went to an open street market down a long, long street.  Again its unbelievable.  So many impressions, it's hard to take it all in.  Selling everything you could think of.  It was around 7 pm now and the heat is still unbearable.  Even my face is dripping.  We also stopped at a huge Chinese Pharmacy and it was very cool in there, so stopped for a rest.

Then some more walking and we came to this area where they cook sour tofu. Okay this has got to be the rankest smell on earth.  Jess said breathe through your mouth - but that didn't help much.  So this tofu is fermented in cabbage and pigs blood for ten days and then they heat it and eat it.  The Chinese seem to all love it, but the smell is enough to put us westeners off.  I would say that is must be an acquired from childhood taste.  Jess did get us some scented tissue and holding that in front of our nose did help some.

 

Parts of the city are centuries old.  In between the huge modern buildings are alleyways that have probably been there forever.  Not very wide and cobbled stone and the buildings are all joined together.  Women washing clothes at communal outdoor taps.  Small living quarters. 

 

Oh, earlier in the day we also went to a food market.  Every kind of vegetable you can imagine, many I have never seen before.  Every kind of fish and seafood, all alive in vats of water, many varites of fish, eel, crabs, shrimp, shellfish.  Live fowl, you just choose what you want and they butcher it for you right there.  Huge baskets of all kinds of grains and rice and noodles etc.  All in little stalls packed tight together along alleyways that just go on and on. 

 

So in a way, Hangzhou is a city of contrasts.  Huge modern buildings as we would see in any of our large cities , very cosmopolitian, then very old century buildings right beside them with the cobbled streets and open markets.

 

The heat today was almost unbearable, plus all the walking just about did me in.  So was glad to take another crazy taxi ride get back to campus, have a shower and turn on the air conditoner. 

 

Here are some pictures taken around West Lake and the Chinese Pharmacy, which is called the Huqingyutang Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum, and some of the tropical vegetation.