Hangzhou is a tourist city that is focused around a large, scenic lake. The lake started out more marshy, and in recent years dredging has deepened and cleared up the water. The TAs all mentioned the water lillies on the lake as being particularly beautiful. To me, they looked a lot like the lillies at Black Moshannon State Park.
Fellow prof Christina and I have successfully navigated the long-distance rail system to get to Hangzhou this weekend. Hangzhou is a tourist city that is focused around a large, scenic lake. The lake started out more marshy, and in recent years dredging has deepened and cleared up the water. The TAs all mentioned the water lillies on the lake as being particularly beautiful. To me, they looked a lot like the lillies at Black Moshannon State Park.
As everywhere, the weather is very hazy on our first morning. This is a view from the boat we took across the lake.
Near the center of the lake is a man-made island (they had to put the dredged silt somewhere) that is shaped like a wagon wheel with only 4 spokes. The main site here is supposedly best viewed at night when there is a full moon. Then they light fires inside these stone pillars, and it looks like there are four moons reflected in the lake.
At one point, someone (a polititian-type) established a villa on the island. This is a carved window in his courtyard.
We hiked over a mountain to see a cave and some carvings. We found the cave, but not the carvings. It was *very* hot, so the natural air conditioning of the cave was refreshing.
After climbing 475 steps to the top of the mountain, this was the view! This spot had a pavillion called "sunrise pavillion". I suppose it must be nice to watch the sunrise from here, but not because there's something special about the view.
This is Baopu Taoist Temple. You can't take pictures of much inside the temple, so no photos. But, there were many interesting statues in a garden surrounding the temple. Inside the temple, you can get a fortune. I was informed that the first fortune I tried was "for old people", so I was allowed to try again -- this time for my fortune in regards to wealth. I can't read it, so look back for an update once I see my TA for a translation.
This is a "lucky" fountain. If you can throw a coin into the center of the pyramid, you will have much luck. I accidentally threw a real coin onto the fountain before being scolded by the attendant and purchasing a much lighter "lucky fountain" coin. I didn't get any good luck, though.
These are the tea fields at the China Tea Museum. It was interesting to see. Somehow I thought the plants would be larger. I learned that tea is harvested in the spring, summer, and autumn. No harvests on the day I was there, though.
A tea plant up close. This region is famous for its Longjing (green dragon) tea. I assume this is a Longjing tea plant.
This is a large piece of equipment used to separate the leaves in the *long* tea-making process. You grab on the the large paddle on the front of the machine and rotate the whole top at once. Although it's easier than it looks, I'm glad this is not my job.
In the past, tea was pressed into cakes. This is me standing in front of several huge tea cakes of various shapes. To use the tea, you apparently break off a chunk and use a special small grinder (think of a wheel and trough that acts a bit like a mortar and pestle).
Early Sunday morning at Lingyin Temple. The side of the mountain has hundreds of carved Buddhas. Since the cliff side is sheltered (and includes many small caves) the carvings have been protected and many are from the 10th century. Their survival is somewhat remarkable, as the temple (and monastary) have been destroyed at least 16 times since it was built in 328.
More carvings. It was interesting to see how the style of the statues changed with changing time and influences from other areas of the world.
These little guys (I can't tell the difference between the Buddhas and the other Buddhist figures) are carved inside a cave in the side of the cliff. It is so dark that you can't really see them without a flash!
Again -- I didn't know what I was looking at until I took the photo.
This is one of the older carvings. He is Master Tsuantsang, who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), on his pilgrimage to get Buddhist scriptures.
This was taken at about 7:30am. I am already very hot.
This carving was quite interesting -- the only fat, laughing Buddha I saw in the whole temple compound. From what I gathered, most are of the "Siddhartha" style - very thin and serene.
In front of all the temples in the complex, there is always a fire, where devotees light incense. They usually hold the incense between pressed-together palms and bow in all four directions. I don't know enough about Buddhist practice to understand what this means. The result is that the whole grounds is full of incense smoke. Again, this was first thing in the morning so that the smoke got thicker as the day progressed.
I love how the architecture here is so detail-oriented and ornate.
Although most visitors spend most of their time at the main temple, you can climb a lot of stairs to get to some less-popular temples in the hills. This is the view looking out from what I think is the 4nd highest one. I never found the cable car to take me to the highest one, and I ran out of time for climbing the rest of the stairs.
Almost all of the pathways have decorative lanterns along them -- I assume so that you don't fall down the stairs at night. Unfortunately, they've been re-fitted with lightbulbs. I can only imagine the beauty of the candlelight. Although since I was there in the morning, I can only imagine the lightbulb-light too.
The view from the 3rd-highest temple.
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