Day 3 -- Hangzhou One Day Tour

Hangzhou is very beautiful especially the West Lake, if it's spring or summer, it should be more beautiful when all the flowers are blooming. With yesterday tiring walking experience, ML even fell sick, so 4 of us (exclude ML who rest at home for the day), chartered a car (RMB 550 a day) to drive us from Suzhou all the way to Hangzhou, about 2.5 hours journey. The driver was not familiar with Hangzhou route, so we took quite some time to get to the West Lake (xi hu).

Hangzhou most famous spot is the West Lake. There are 36 west lakes in China -- Beijing, Fuzhou, Guilin etc, annd Hangzhou's West Lake is the most beautiful among all. Hangzhou tourist spots are mostly surrounding West Lake, so it's quite convenient for tourists to venture around. There were many freelance tour guides standing along the road side offering guide or cum travel car renting. RMB 100 for a small van, driving you all day to few tourist spots, tour guiding is free. Since we already chartered car with driver, we didn't bother to talk to those people. We started with Yue Fei temple. Yue Fei was a famous warrior but was sabotaged by evil ministers. We just took picture outsid ethe temple as we felt that it's just a temple with information board about the life of Yue fei, not really worth to pay for the entrance fee.

Our next destination was Boat Ride around the famous and scenic West Lake. Ticket was RMB 45 per person. There was a lady tour guide kept following us. She explained that if we buy ticket through her, we pay the same amount, RMB 45 each, but she can get 20% off, and she earn from the 20%, and she will give us free guiding along the way. Since she told us so frankly, we decided to accept her service. She even showed us a newspaper cutting and her tour guide batch that she is the top 10 best tour guide in Hangzhou, and every year she is in the top 10. Indeed she is very patient and friendly, even if she earn a lot from our spending, we still feel good...:p

There are 3 islands at West Lake, one is for tea drinking, each cup of famous West Lake Long Jin tea is RMB 30. We opted out that island. Another one island is for man to throw "xiu qui" (ball) in the lake in summer to woo their dream girl in ancient time. Nowadays, they still have this game, but just for entertainment and tourist income, at the end of game, the organiser will cut the string that tie between the male and female to signify the end of relation, and no love should carry on out of the island especially for those who are married and the partner is not in the game.

We went up to the center island which is so beautiful. The fairy Islet, is a wonderful spot to savor its scenic expanse. Amidst this island's intricately designed gardens, ponds and pavilions are the famed "Three Towers Mirroring the Moon". Erected some seven hundred years ago, these so-called towers are actually three small pagoda-like structures placed in the water at a slight distance from the island. Rumoured to control the evil spirits lurking in the water's depths. There was another saying that there was once the water in the lake was all dried out due to excess planting of lotus in the lake, so Su Dong po, the minister during that time build 3 pagoda-like tower in the lake for measuring the water level and also served as a reminder to the villagers not to plant lotus anymore. In mid-August (Mooncake festival) the 3 pagoda-like towers contain within their hollow structures a reflection of the full moon. Each pagoda has 5 hollow holes, so 3 will have 15 circles (or Moon), then the reflection in the water, another 15, total 30 moon. One moon in the sky, one in water as reflection, so 32 moons. But it is said to produce 33 moons, so where is the last moon? Arr...huh....it's is your very own heart....your dream lady...hihihi.

There are many other beautiful sites on West Lake like  Xianci (Temple of Outstanding Men), Jiuquqiao (Bridge with 9 Twists), Yingcuixuan (Room of Ushering In Greeness), Muxiangxie (Pavilion of Wood Fragrance), and Huaniaoting (Hall of Flowers and Birds).

One of the most important parts of traveling is tasting the local delicacies. Hangzhou dishes are noted for their elaborate preparation, sophisticated cooking and refreshing taste. The tour guide told us not to eat at the restaurant at West Lake as the same food can be much cheaper at restaurant outside West Lake, so we quoted a budget of RMB 150 (which later on we felt that that it was a bit too much that we gave), and requested to try some famous dishes in Hangzhou.We tried Beggar's Chicken (a chicken baked in clay), West Lake Fish (vinegar coated fish fresh caught from the lake, but the plain water fish always has some sand smell.... :-(), Dongpo Pork (braised pork), a plate of vegetable, deep fried bean curd skin with shrimp paste, and a bowl of soup. The vegetable used in teh soup is said to be one of the emperor favourite, but we don't like it as it's sour and sticky. Weird taste. They even sell this veggie as can food. Hmmm, the food in Hangzhou is more plain, not too salty and not too oily, even the Dongpo pork, eventhough looks fat, but when you bite on it, it's just nice, not oily.

After lunch, we visited Silk factory, Hangzhou is famous for Silk blanket, which is said to be very long lasting, will turn warm in cold weather and turn cool in hot weather. Pat helped her friend to buy a set of silk blanket sheet which cost RMB 800 after discount. Wow, blanket sheet is more expensive than blanket itself(Blanket is RMB 430 onward, depends on amount of silk inside). After that we droved to Mei Jia Wu (a small village further away from West Lake where they grow the best Long Jing Tea. Again, it was a squeezy journey as the tour guide sat in front seat and 4 of us squeeze behind. Luckily we are not big size, but the winter clothes are bulky, what more I wore 4 layers of pants that day....Haaaaaaa. We tried some tea at the government tea plantation and there was an officer introducing different grade of tea leave and the correct method to drink green tea. She said in Hangzhou, all people has nice skin complexion and slim and healthy because they always drink green tea (Long Jing is the best of all green tea). She said the correct way to drink green tea is soak the green tea in cold mineral water for 4 hour before drinking. Using cold water is because hot water will spoilt some of the mineral in the tea leave. Hot tea is only for fun drinking, but cold green tea is for health. This cold tea can help to clean the internal dirt in body and eliminate oily substance. You can also add dried Mandarin orange skin and "Shan Zha" to the green, it helps to lower blood pressure and prevent diabetes. The tea leaves should not soak more than 16 hours if use for drinking. After soaking for 16 hours, you can use it for washing eyes, which helps to maintain clear eye sight. I bought a can of Long Jing for my mum and Pat bought one too. They gave another small can free.

After tea plantation, we stopped at the oldest bridge in Hangzhou to take some picture and also have a rough view of the Six Harmonies Pagoda(lui he ta). We have opted out Lin Yin Shi where the famous Ji Gong monk stayed because it is too expensive to visit that place, the entrance fee is RMB 65, then the local believed that no one should entered a temple without joss stick, and there are 3 praying chamber in that temple, each need one joss stick, each joss stick is RMB 100. So including entrance fee, need to pay RMB 365, one day one Ren Ming Bi...hihihi. So we never go. We then went to another temple, which no need joss stick for praying ---> Lei Feng Pagoda.

Lei Feng Pagoda is famous for its beautiful sunset. This pagoda is almost a household name in China thanks to the folk tale, Legend of White Snake, a touching love story about a young lady changed from a white snake for a young man. the couple was separated by an evil monk with magical power and the white snake was imprisoned under the pagoda for year. She was rescued by her son who caused the collapse of the pagoda. In real life the pagoda was built by some ancient emperor to celebrate the birth of his son by his favourite concubine, Huangfei. The pagoda was reconstructed in Dec 2000. Of course, we couldn't miss the mesmerizing sunset, many pictures were snapped here.

Before we left Hangzhou, we have some shopping of local snacks recommended by the tour guide. For that day, I think she earned quite a good commisions from our entrance fee and spending.....but she delivered good service too, so it's fine for us. Initially we planned to stay overnight at Hangzhou, but since we managed to visit most of the tourist places that we marked, so we decided to return to Suzhou on the same day. We reached Suzhou at around 8.30pm. Then ML brought us to have dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant and we rest early that night.