Sunday morning we got up early after getting only a few hours of sleep to meet with Sophie's cousin for brunch. She took us to an amazing dim sum traditional brunch, and we all ate way too much. She took us to the pearl market after, and we shopped around for awhile before she had to go, and Sophie and I continued to look around for awhile. Sophie is a master bargainer, because she doesn't really bargain but rather names her only price and leaves until they give in, and I used this to my advantage on our shopping adventure. Besides pearls, the market had the typical goods you would see in any shopping street in China, designer bags, fake cell phones, traditional Chinese goods, jewelry and clothing, etc. We bought some pearl jewelry, and presents for other people, and then dvds to watch on our travels. The dvds we purchased were all movies currently in theater, so we were worried that they would be of poor quality (i.e. someone taping from the theater), but they were surprising clear and normal for the .75cents we paid. On our way home, Sophie and I stopped at the train station to buy tickets to travel to Hangzhou. We were going the next day for a one night/one day adventure. We met a lady there who talked to us for awhile and told us some important things to see in Hangzhou. For dinner, Henry and I took her to our favorite restaurant across from school and then made a quick stop for dessert before heading home. We watched the movie "The Lovely Bones," and decided to stop when it was too creepy to watch in our pitch dark room.
Monday morning I had class, so Sophie went to explore downtown a little. I got done with class at 3, met up with Sophie, packed my bag, and then we left for Hangzhou. The train was only 1.5 hours and we got to our hotel around 7pm. Our hotel was amazing, and it was comparable to one of the nicer hotels I have stayed in anywhere else, but for $25 a night. Unfortunately we mostly just enjoyed sleeping there, because the rest of the day was packed with stuff to do in such a short amount of time. Monday night when we arrived, we explored downtown in a shopping and restaurant district that the hotel recommended we visit. While walking around, we happened upon a huge pagoda, and we hiked up to see it. It was about to close for the night, so we could only see it from the outside, but there were amazing views of the city from were we had hiked to. As we descended the hill, we bought some fruit at a little fruit market before heading back to our hotel. At this point it was fairly late, and we decided to go to bed and wake up early to see as much as possible the next day.
The next morning we checked out of the hotel, stored our bags with the concierge, and took a taxi to the famous Ling yin temple. On our way, the taxi driver took us to a small tea village to show us where the tea leaves were grown and drive us through some scenic places. We got to the temple and walked around the grounds. We saw the stone carvings the lined the walls of the perimeter, and the beautiful Buddhist statues in each of the three temples. It was a very nice day in Hangzhou, and it seemed almost too warm for how we had dressed. Meanwhile, it was raining in Shanghai, so I guess I can be thankful that we escaped that! After navigating the temples, we were ready for lunch, so we took a taxi downtown to Hangzhou's very own Xintiandi area. We tried the Hangzhou specialty Jiaohuaji (drunken chicken), which is a a chicken wrapped in bamboo leaves and covered in clay to be cooked. It was an interesting experience, because we were served the entire cooked chicken, including the claw, which I refused to look at. We had been walking around for awhile, so we decided to take a gondola across the lake to one of the islands in the middle. We rode with some people from Beijing, who talked to us about America and asked Sophie if she owned a gun(?)...anyways despite some awkward questions, the scenery was beautiful, and because it was a clear day, we could see everything from the lake.
The ride was about an hour long, and I fell asleep for part of it, but when we arrived on the island Sophie and I walked around a bit before stopping at a cafe to sit by the lake for a little while. We chatted and drank coffee all while being stalked by local guys who kept coming by to take pictures with the 美国人们 (Americans). At some point it stopped being amusing, and Sophie and I walked along the lake until we got back to our hotel. After a full day of activities we were pretty tired, but we had a couple hours to kill before our train left, so we grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed downtown to a little shopping road. On this road, there were hundreds of vendors and shops, and we made our way down from one end to the next. At the end we sat down for street food and tried a couple little things. We made our way towards the train station, and ended up walking all the way there through cute little streets throughout the city. We asked on of the train attendants were our waiting room was, and she decided to escort us ahead of a huge line. We felt somewhat silly for doing this, because clearly she thought we wouldn't be able to figure it out ourselves from her directions, but we were happy to be finally sitting after a long day of exploring. We finally got on the train home and rode the subway back to my apartment.
Yesterday, Sophie and I went to the French Concession and Xintiandi to walk around and see all the famous places around these areas. We started with lunch at Din Tai Fung, a dumpling place I mentioned before that Sophie had recommended. Then we followed somewhat of a walking tour from our guidebook, deviating to see other things every once in awhile. As its name suggests, the French concession is highly European and filled with parks and beautiful architecture. We walked through many gardens and I coveted many houses! Our first stop was a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church. It was a building that stood out from the rest, and we had no difficulty finding. Next we visited Dr. Sun Yatsen's residence. In attempts to save time, we only viewed it from the outside, but I will go back later to tour the entire house. We walked through the smaller streets and alleys, and I wondered if I were still in Shanghai. The French Concession is a lot less congested, the scenery is beautiful, and the air even seems cleaner, but that could be my imagination. We next toured, former first premier, Zhou Enlai's old residence, where I found my dream home next door. It was in one of the most gorgeous areas of Shanghai I have visited yet, and I plan on returning many times. On our way to a museum, Sophie and I got distracted while shopping, and when we were finished the museum had already closed, so we went to a cafe to read and study.
We planned to meet up with Sophie's cousin again for dinner at 630, so we walked back to Xintiandi. She took us to a Sichuan meal (Szechuan in American), known for their spicy dishes, and we had their specialty: hot boiling fish. Sichuan meals in China are characterized by their spicy flavors created by tiny sichuan peppercorns. These peppercorns are actually illegal in the US, but I don't know the real reason why. However, these peppercorns are special, because they numb your month with a tingly sensation caused by weird type of spicyness we obviously don't have in the states. It wasn't so much that it was too hot to eat, but rather it was tingly spicyness that I found I could tolerate much more than a hot spicyness. Afterwards Sophie's cousin, and friend that had dinner with us, took us to an amazing bar on the 34th floor of the Hyatt in Shanghai. It overlooks the entire river and bund, and you can see all the amazing buildings on the other side. So far it has been an eventful few days, and I am getting excited for Chinese New Year and going to Hong Kong to celebrate.
Chinese Word of the Day: 新年快乐 (xin nian kuai le: Happy New Year!)
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