Further Away From Home

Oh. You’re back. You want to hear about stuff that is going on, I take it. Fine, pull up a chair and I shall regale you with tales of merry and fun. Oh, and pictures. Those too.

This past weekend was one of our major excursions of the Alliance program. We took off of classes on Friday in order to go to some cities outside of Shanghai. After a few hours, we arrived at our first location, which was Shaoxing. The main draw of this city is that it was the birth place of Lu Xun, who was one of the most well-known writers in Chinese history. Well, that means we had to go see where he lived, right? Right!

After this, we went to take a black-awning canal ride. Think of taking a gondola ride through Venice, with the people looking out at you on the water and the sights slowly passing you by. Now, put it in China. It’s kind of like that. Sort of.

The next day, we made our way to Hangzhou, one of the largest tourist cities in China. Along the way though, we stopped at a valley for a hike and local lunch. This valley was amazing to walk around, with plenty of scenery to enjoy.

One of the things that we had been looking forward to during this part of the trip was the crossing of the bridge. Basically, this was a small bridge over the water outside of the valley in order to get back to where the bus was. Well, we made it to where the bridge was, but it wasn’t there. Instead, there were rafts:

So comfortable. When we got to the other side, we found out where the bridge went:

The wind had apparently blown over the bridge. Really glad I wasn’t on it.

After the valley hike, we arrived in Hangzhou, and then went to one of the most popular streets in the city. This street is set up like a pedestrian mall. We were all starving so we went down a side alley which acted like a food court for local delicacies. The popular food we had to try was “beggar’s chicken,” which is basically a whole chicken wrapped in mud and paper, buried for a while, then cooked. It is very tasty, as soon as you get rid of the head first. After that, we took the chance to look around the area, which allowed me to get my first real souvenir of the trip: Two pairs of decorated chopsticks. There was a whole store devoted to chopsticks, an entire store for fans, one for…well, you get the idea.

The next day, we went out to West Lake, the main tourist draw of Hangzhou. This joins the small list of places that have been able to take my breath away. I cannot think of any place to really compare to the lake, so I will just put up some pictures so that you can make your own opinions:

After that, we went to a restaurant to sample some local food, including the tea, which is among the best in China. It was here that I ate what is most likely the most disgusting food I have had in my life thus far: fish eyeball. There, I said it, let's move on.

After that delightful meal, we went to a local spring, which boasts powerfully pure water. I have been to Chalice Well Spring in London, so I was skeptical at first. However, I did sample some of the water, and I was impressed with what I had. The spring is very serene, and the area surrounding it seemed to be set up for meditation.

Most of the time here was spent taking pictures of the sights, and I could not resist the chance to make a “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” reference:

This marked the end of our trip, but I have heard from a few people (myself included) who would love to return to Hangzhou for a weekend. Who knows, maybe there will be another post about the city in the near future.

Until next time…