Lake cruise, tea garden, and pagoda

Day 6  Sunday, November 17, 2019   Hangzhou to Shanghai

Our morning excursion was to West Lake, in Hangzhou . We had a short cruise here, then we went to a nearby tea plantation (sales time!), followed by a visit to Liuhe Pagoda, and finally took the long bus ride back to Shanghai.

We had another local guide in Hangzhou, Aaron, who gave us some history during the bus ride to West Lake.

The city has an 8000-yr history, and has been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last millennium. About 3000 BC they "invented" rice here. In 1275, when Marco Polo visited, it was the largest city in the world. (Although Marco Polo is said to have discovered pizza and pasta here, Aaron said that was not actually correct.)

Hangzhou was the southern end of the Grand Canal, which extends to Beijing. Because the Qiantang River flows only about 12 miles east before reaching the ocean, it meant the Grand Canal connected to the sea. Hangzhou is the headquarters for Ali Baba, the "Amazon" of China. Nine million people live in the city.

We boarded our cruise boat. There's Aaron, our local guide. One of his stories was the legend of the  Butterfly Lovers, the "Chinese Romeo and Juliet". It was, of course, a tragic love story, dating from about 200 AD.

Two wooden boats during our cruise. West Lake is divided into five sections separated by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, and gardens, and artificial islands within the lake. It has influenced poets and painters for 1000s of years, for its natural beauty and historic relics. West Lake has been among the most important sources of inspiration for Chinese garden designers. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, described as having "influenced garden design...reflecting an idealized fusion between humans and nature."

What a unique boat! I found it interesting to learn that over 2,000 years ago, West Lake was still a part of the Qiantang River. Due to soil sedimentation and runoff from the surrounding mountains, shoals formed to create a bank, and the lake formed to the west of the river. In 1089, a renowned poet Su Shi, the city's governor, used 200,000 workers to construct a 1.7-mi-long causeway across West Lake. The Su Causeway is still there.

One more photo from West Lake. 

I stole this photo from the Internet since mine did not come out. We cruised past these three "stone pagodas", which are on the one Yuan bill (I pulled one of the bills out of my wallet and we passed it around to see this scene we passed). The stone pagodas were originally built in 1089 during the Song Dynasty (960- 1279), standing in a triangle on three deep-water pools. They lie near the man-made island known as Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, a West Lake landmark and the symbol of Hangzhou.

The island got its name from a Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Cake Day), when candles are lit inside the round holes of each pagoda, creating the mixed splendor of candle light, moonlight and lake light on the three-pool area in the lake (hence the name of Three Pools Mirroring the Moon).

Aaron told us about the world's largest tidal bore, on the Qiantang River between Hangzhou and the ocean bay, about 12 miles to the east. The tide rushing into the river mouth from the bay causes a wave which can reach up to 30 ft in height, and travel up to 40 km/hr (25 mph)! In 2007, a group of international surfers made several attempts to surf the tidal wave, and a French and a Brazilian rode one wave continuously for 17 km (10.5 miles), lasting 1 hour and 10 minutes. This was hard for me to imagine - 30 ft high at 25 mph, so I found several You Tube videos to watch it. Wow.

Not far from Hangzhou, we visited the Longjing Tea Plantation near the village of Meijiawu. It is famous for Dragon Well tea, which they said was more than just a national beverage; like the pearls in Wuxi, it is a medicine (cures cancer!), a way of life, an opportunity to get in touch with your spirituality, and a way to make money from tourists! haha

The setting was indeed scenic. Aaron explained how tea is grown and harvested, and how, of all methods used in the world for tea, the ways they do it here are clearly the best. Their tea has the highest levels of healthy polyphenols, etc. Next, of course, we went inside for a demonstration, tasting, and sales pitch. If you didn't want to drink the tea for its health benefits, you could take supplements made from it. Janet originally asked to buy their high-dose supplement (just one tablet per day instead of four), but when she heard the $200+ cost in US dollars, she said "no thanks."

Here are Janet and "the boys" hanging around, waiting for those still at the presentation to make their purchases.

Our final stop in Hangzhou was the Liuhe Pagoda, the best preserved wood-and-brick pagoda in China. It is on the north shore of the Qiantang River, and was originally constructed in 970, destroyed in 1121, and reconstructed fully by 1165.

Liuhe means "six harmonies", and the reasons for building the pagoda were to "calm the tidal bore" of the river, and as a navigational aid. This photo is from our walk around the grounds behind the pagoda. It was called Ringing of the Liuhe Bell.

This area behind the pagoda was called the Liuhe Allusions, with these eclectic statues.

Being of considerable size (60 meters - 197 ft tall) and stature, it actually served as a permanent lighthouse from nearly its beginning, to aid sailors in seeking anchorages at night.

You can see how close it was to the Qiantang River, with the financial center in the background on the south side.

Before we departed on the long bus ride to Shanghai, we bought some snacks as a lunch at the pagoda's parking area. We bought some warm, spiced potatoes, and I forget what else.

The 100-mile bus trip to Shanghai took a few hours. Our hotel was the same one the others had stayed at on the first night, while seven of us were held over in Beijing. There weren't any restaurants in the area, so we ate at the hotel restaurant. There was a language problem, but we finally communicated that we wanted wine, and I got the entree I ordered. Janet never did, but she gave up and ate some of mine. Our bill had her entree charge on there, and when I went up to point it out, they asked if she still would like it. "No, not anymore." So, three of them debated in rapid Chinese for a couple minutes, and finally they gave me a corrected bill.