What's Up Al ? 遊記隨筆 生活點滴

If you had wanted to understand the world of tea, you could not do better than visiting Long Jing (龍井) - a hilly suburb about 2km west of Xi Hu (西湖) in Hangzhou (杭州). Long Jing tea had been consumed in China for over 1,000 years by tea lovers and the green suburb centered around Long Jing Village offered visitors a myriad of activities. Clearly marked hiking trails criss-crossing the endless fields of tea plantation offered hikers spectacular views both panoramic as well as close-up with tea leaves pickers framing a perfect picture of harmony and nature,. The well-laid out Tea Museum just up the road from the village presented to visitors a comprehensive picture of all things related to tea - history, types, flavors, ancient tea routes, tea ceremonies, consumption statistics and whats-not. And why not just stop by one of the many tea houses and try a bit of tea leaves roasting and sit back and relax with a cuppa. On our second day in Long Jing, we hiked passed the beautiful tea plantations and headed 5km further west to our destination of Yun Xi Bamboo Forests (雲棲竹徑). We were so amazed by the feeling of being surrounded by thousands and thousands of bamboos ranging from young shoots, growing adolescents to tall and thick grannies reaching over 10 meters ! We didn't want to go as the atmosphere was so special and serene and the air was so fresh that we felt a natural high as we reluctantly boarded our bus back to Hangzhou - a great day out !

Without doubt one of the most beautiful and livable cities in China - Hangzhou exuded elegance aplenty, with peaceful waterways and canals criss-crossing the city, inviting tree-lined boulevards offering cool shades from the spring time sun and topping all that beauty with the UNESCO-lauded The Grand Canal (京杭大運河) and the famous Xi Hu (西湖), made HZ a magical place to spend a fortnight. We stayed about 7 km north of Xi Hu, although far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, the area we chose offered peace, quiet and modernity, in great contrast with the poetic and historical centre. We visited Xi Hu for 2 days and the great lake looked even prettier than we had left it in 2009; perhaps this was due to the arrival of spring time with flowers blossoming, willow trees swaying and blue skies all-round. The atmosphere was most accurately echoed by one of the 10 Xi Hu scenic spots (西湖十景) - 蘇堤春曉. During our walk around Xi Hu, we came across a cheeky brown squirrel hanging up-side-down from a tree, trying to entice the passers-by for a treat or two (spot the cute guy in the photo below). 

Apart from "laking" around, we visited the The Grand Canal (HZ section) - the length of the entire Grand Canal would clock up over 1,700 km, stretching all the way up to Beijing, where many sections of the canal being built as far back as 2,500 years ago ! The Grand Canal played a pivotal role in dynasties passed, of supplying raw materials and merchant goods from the rural south to the more developed and prosperous northern provinces, thus acting as a catalyst in years gone by, in integrating the different parts of ancient China and modernizing the southern provinces while helping to achieve more prosperity over the whole country; a great human feat indeed ! Aside from these two interesting sights which occupied many of our days here, we visited the many different parts of HZ -  靈隱寺, 六和塔, 錢塘江 as well as oodles of museums. One interesting side track : we even fitted in a day trip to the city of Yi Wu (義烏), "the small to medium commodities/goods centre of the world", where merchants from central Asia, the Middle East and Europe congregated in their thousands and sending these small to medium goods by trains and boats all the way back to their respective countries. As a result, we found Yi Wu to be full of foreign business people walking around, popping in and out of shops selling all manners of goods from fashion clothes, hats, kitchen sinks, sports shoes, Winter socks, fluffy towels, plastic banners, golf clubs, make-ups, to even mannequins (!), you name it ! and we also found tonnes of kebab shops, Indian curry restaurants and Turkish tea houses to cater for the needs of these hard-working business people !