April 12, 2002 (Friday)

The flight (China Air CA986) to Shanghai was a direct flight -- I hadn't know that until I checked in.  It would be a 11-hour (or something like that) flight, with two meals and some snacks.  Because Shanghai is ahead by 15 hours, by the time we arrived at Shanghai, it would be the evening of the next day (April 13).  I sat at a window seat, which I requested, and had pretty good vegetarian meals throughout the flight, and watched 3 or 4 movies.  In front of each seat (mounted on the back of the seat ahead of yours) was a small monitor and 4 or 5 channels played movies repeatedly.  You could also watch the progress of the flight on a separate channel.  You can see things like the alititude, flight speed, outside temperature, current location, estimated time of arrival, etc.  How air travel has changed!
 

[3489]  The Air China 747-400 plane; non-stop to Shanghai from SFO

[3507]  I'm reading a book while waiting for boarding (at SFO)

April 13, 2002 (Saturday)

Somewhere in the air, we crossed the date-line, jumping ahead a day!  The following snow-covered terrain is of Alaska, I think.  Quite breath-taking actually.  Those mountains could easily be 5,000 ft high or more.
 

[3517]  Flying over Alaska, view from the plane.

April 14, 2002 (Sunday)

Once the plane landed in one of Shanghai's two airports, Pu Dong, the tour guide (Bing) found us outside of customs and lead us to the curb to be picked up by the bus, with the driver named master Chang.  There were 6 other people in the tour, all took the same flight as I, and were all related.  4 of them were a family of parents (Sunny and Diane) and 2 sons (Michael and Patrick), and the remaining two were Sunny's sister Susan and her husband Mark.  It was a small shuttle bus, with 6 or 7 rows, perfect for our group as we had a total of only 9 people including the driver and tour guide.  Immediately, we left for Hangzhou, a 3-hour ride from the Shanghai airport.  Through the tinted windows of the bus, I could see residential buildings scattered along the highway, and at times clustered towns as well.  The highway was surprisingly smooth although eerily quiet compared with SF's congested freeways.  We arrived at the Holiday Inn in Hangzhou late into the night and was briefed on the wake up time for the next morning, and given the keys to the ultra-modern hotel (with indoor swimming pool and all the luxuries you would find in the US - too much for me, but I suppose those used to US standards would've found this hotel quite accomodating) rooms, we bid goodnight and went up to rest.
 

[3550]  View from outside the hotel room window in Hangzhou (Holiday Inn).

The next morning (Sunday) I got up before breakfast and went for a walk around the hotel.  The following few images are not part of the package tour, but are of my favorites as they depict the 'real' city life, and not what is put up for the tourists.  What is interesting is that as soon as I stepped off the curbside of the hotel, I was immediately shoved into a different world, one of simplicity and practicality.  People were peddaling to work, merchants scattered about the streets to sell food and other necessities, such as bicycle parts.
 

[3567]  Streetside noodle cart - in Hangzhou.  It is around breakfast time of the day, but she'll probably sell the same items throughout the day.

[3569]  A wine shop in Hangzhou.  The store owner had never seen a digital camera and was reluctant to be taken a picture of.  But she agreed to let me go behind the counter!

[3576]  Another day of work, this face seemed to say.  The people rode the bikes without hurry and maneuvered among the cars and traffic from various directions as adeptly as duck in water.  This biker surely noticed my camera but decides to gaze straight into the lens, not at all bothered by my presence.

[3578]  In a nearby indoor/outdoor market, this and other merchants are selling breakfast items as well as grocery and other products.  I bought two "Rose buns" from her at 0.5 RMB each (about $0.07) and they were delicious!  The rose buns have red beans inside, as opposed to meat or vegetables.

After the walk on the streets around the hotel, I returned to join the others for breakfast in the hotel.  It was a buffet-style consisting of dozens of items, from western muffins and toast to traditional chinese porriage with preserved vegetables.  There was also fresh juice and fruits.  Quite overwhelming actually!  I rather prefer the simple buns from the streets.  After breakfast, we started the sightseeing in the city of Hangzhou.

The first stop was West Lake, a famed lake/garden from ancient times.  When we got there, there were thousands of tourists, from other foreigners to chinese from other parts of China.  It was a mad-house in a way.  This crowded feeling (though closed in, it wasn't uncomfortable) would be repeated many times through the rest of the trip.
 

[3581]  West Lake, in Hangzhou.  I am standing on one of many arch-shaped bridges built around the lake.  The sky was dark and seemingly smoggy, although the tour guide says it isn't pollution. (Hm...)

[3588]  West Lake, in Hangzhou.  This picture is taken from the upper deck of a boat that I'm on, also cruising the lake like this beautiful boat, constructed in the shape of a garden terrace.  There were literally dozens of boats like this and hundreds of smaller boats, all trying to expose the beauty of the lake to its passengers.  In the background, you can see a pagoda, a rather large one at that.  It has a name I can't remember but as with some of the other pagodas around the lake, part of its purpose is to protect the people.

[3631]  West Lake, in Hangzhou.  All along the periphery of the lake are buildings such as this one, some are government, some are museums, many are temples.

After the visit to West Lake, we drove a short distance to Lingyin Buddhist Temple where the largest wooden sitting buddha resides.  There are several huge buildings, some several hundred years old, some just a few decades old as fire destroyed the temples many times.  As with West Lake, this was a prime tourist attraction, especially for the religious.  It is a working-temple, that is, it's not just for show, although the tourists easily outnumber the pilgrims.  The temple is built on the side of a mountain, and carved into the rocks of the mountain are dozens of buddha and other religiously significant statues.
 

[3648]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  Photographs were not permitted inside the temples, so I took this from the outside.  It would've been difficult to capture more than half of the statue if I had taken the picture from the inside.  This is the largest wooden sitting buddha in China.  The next picture grandly illustrates the immense size which this picture is unable to show.

[3653]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  Here I am, completely dwarfed by Buddha, which is recessed quite far back in the picture. 

[3657]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  These are wooden statues in another building on the premise.  Although immense in size, they exude calm and peace.  Unfortunately, we were only able to spend a precious few minutes with them. 

[3666]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  This is a small (~12 ft tall) decorative pagoda in the temple compound.  Perhaps it is a replica of an actual pagoda elsewhere?

[3671]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  This is the most famous rock buddha in the temple, a laughing lucky buddha!

[3674]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  Behind me are more rock carvings. You can see the laughing buddha behind my left arm.

[3675]  Lingyin Buddhist Temple, in Hangzhou.  Another statute, this one about 6 ft high.  People were advised to rub his belly just once for luck and prosperity.

After visiting the temple and lunch, we went to the green tea plantations in Hangzhou.  The tour guide explained the different teas China produced and how green tea is unfermented and one of the most healthy tea.  Along winding mountain roads, we passed through acres upon acres of green tea bushes, most were on hillsides, some with gentle slopes, many with extremely steep slopes.  Locals can be seen picking the leaves.  According to Dr. Tea at the tea house we visited, the best green tea are those made with the young tender leaves (about 1 cm long or smaller), and are whole, not crushed.  And because the leaves are lighter in color when younger, it's best to look for lighter (but not bleached) colored leaves.  The teas are graded from A to C (at this place anyways), among other ratings, and are sold by the can, not by weight, although 4 cans make up a kilo (I think it was a kilo... or chinese pound, which would be considerably less).
 

[3683]  Tea Plantation, in Hangzhou.  This man is drying fresh tea leaves in a metal pot heated to 130 degrees celsius!  Water boils at around 100 C, so that's pretty hot.  He manually swooshes a small amount of fresh leaves around the pot to absorb the heat.  A heavy aroma fills the air around the cauldron.  The ratio is about 4 to 1, for the weight reduced by the heating process.  That is, 4kg of fresh tea leaves produces 1 kg of marketable green tea leaves.

[3684]  Tea Plantation, in Hangzhou.  Here you see the tea leaf bushes on the level ground and all over the hillsides.  Tea is big business, and because pesticides are not tolerated by countries like Japan, they have perfected organic farming techniques.  As such, we were able to pick fresh leaves off the bushes and taste them without a rinse.  And as much as I looked, I could not find evidence of any chemicals used.  This was a very pleasant surprise indeed!

[3697]  Tea Plantation, in Hangzhou. Freshly-picked tea leaves.

[3698]  Tea Plantation, in Hangzhou.  A great big (ornamental) teapot and me.

[3701]  Tea Plantation, in Hangzhou.  What a pretty view from within the courtyards of the tea house.  A pond with koi and giant teapots is protected by the white walls and mountains of tea leaf bushes.  I suppose you can literally 'drink it in' the view!

[3703]  Tea Plantation, in Hangzhou.  Here are my tour companions.  We're in the tasting room of the tea house, listening to a lecture by Dr. Tea.

After tea-tasting, we went to see a huge pagoda, Pagoda of Six Harmonies.  The original one was built over a thousand years ago (if I remember correctly), the one we saw is a rebuilt version.  Although only about 1/3rd the height of the original, it is still a massive structure, requiring us to lean back quite a bit to see the top.
 

[3721]  Pagoda of Six Harmonies, in Hangzhou. It is perhaps 60 meters tall. The original, I was told, was 190 meters!!  That's over 600 ft or around 60 storeys, close to the height of Transamerica in SF or the Prudential in Boston. 

[3730]  Pagoda of Six Harmonies, in Hangzhou.  Around the pagoda are temples and gardens with statues like this one. 

It's been a long day already yet we are not quite done!  Two more places to visit before calling it a day.  Next we went for a brief visit of the oldest working pharmacy in Hangzhou.  It is both a tourist center and frequented by locals who come to get traditional chinese medicine.
 

[3737]  A traditional chinese pharmacy, in Hangzhou.  This marks the entrance into the pharmacy.

[3742]  A traditional chinese pharmacy, in Hangzhou.  On the top are names of many medicines.  The wall of containers and locker-like bins store the actual herbs and other medicines.  In contrast to the traditional look, the left side of the picture shows an electronic scale with red LEDs!  I wonder if they used an electronic cash register or abacuses?

After the short visit to the pharmacy, we went to a silk factory.  Under one roof was everything necessary to extract the silk from the cocoons, create strands of silk threads, and weave the silk into bed sheets, ties, dresses, and other items.  There is even an auditorium where live fashion shows were held on a regular basis (once an hour or half hour).  And of course, there were spacious shops for selling the merchandize.  I lost many of the pictures taken here but we came back to this factory at a later date, and you'll see more pictures there.
 

[3747]  Silk factory, in Hangzhou.  The woman in red explained what the woman sitting down was doing - she was sorting the cocoons to extract damaged one, and to also separate the 'double' cocoons from the singles.  The 'double' cocoons are where two cocoons were joined together, and in cases like that, it is not possible to find the start of the thread.  These 'flawed' cocoons are used to make silk blankets. 

[3749]  Silk factory, in Hangzhou.  In a pot of boiling water, two tiny broom-like sticks rotate around and around, perturbing the cocoons as they hit the water.  The objective is to soften the cocoon while trying to extract the start of the thread, which then are combined with 10 or so other cocoons (see behind the pot clusters of cocoons floating in the water) to make a single strand of silk.  It's a time-consuming process, even with the many machines.