Weekend in Hangzhou

Syd and I spent the weekend in Hangzhou with our friends Ann (or Miss Ham, as Syd likes to call her), Declan and Julia. Hangzhou is a 2.5 hour drive by car from Shanghai or a 1.18 hours by train. We tried to hop the train but tickets for the return trip was sold out. So we rented a car and driver and made the long trek to Hangzhou. It was definitely worth the trip.

I've only been in big cities in China and was gratified to be in the peaceful environment of a lake surrounded by mountains. The main draw in Hangzhou is West Lake, which is reported to be 3 miles across and 9 miles around. There are several islands on the lake to visit and we were able to only see 2 -- one of which was the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon island. It is spectacular but unfortunately, it started to rain while we were on this island so Syd and I returned to the hotel. The weather was overcast the entire trip and even sprinkled on and off throughout the weekend. But the weather didn't dampen our enjoyment of this city, which was once the capital of China during the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1127-1279).

View from our hotel room at the Hyatt

On one of the islands

One of the many boats that you can take to tour the lake

I would love to show you more but the battery went out on the first day in Hangzhou and, you guessed it, I didn't have my charger. It just makes me sick because we had a fantastic visit to the Lingyin Temple (Temple of Soul's Retreat), located in the hills west of the lake. This temple was the highlight of the trip for me (I mean other than spending time with my friends:)).There is a limestone cliff called Feilai Feng (Peak that Flew from Afar), which got its name because it resembles a holy mountain in India. The cliff contains four caves and about 380 Buddhists carvings in the walls. There was no way that the stroller could have made it through the caves and the cliffs, and there was no way that Sydney was going to walk the entire time. So Syd and I skipped the caves. But we admired the many work carvings on the outside of the cliff.

Since we were at a Buddhist temple, we also took a moment to burn incense and say a prayer. Mine was for the speedy recovery of Sydney's godfather, Steve, who we love and admire more and more everyday. There was also a room filled with dozens of statutes and in the middle were large statutes of Buddha. Sydney watched other people kneel on the yellow pillow in front of the large statutes and placed their head in their hands in prayer. Sydney insisted on getting out of her stroller and knelt down on the yellow pillow and said her own prayer. It was just so sweet.

I can't sign off without telling you about our lunch at a restaurant called Lou Wai Lou (Pavilion Beyond Pavilion) on the lake. We had Beggar's Chicken, which was fabulous. Everyone that I have met who have been to Hangzhou have raved about this restaurant, and for good reason. The Beggar's Chicken comes out wrapped in lotus leaves and then newspaper around the leaves. It has to be cracked opened with a hammer and the chicken inside just melts in your mouth.

For those of you who are planning trips to Shanghai, I highly recommend that you go to Hangzhou for atleast one night. We only spent one night but we all agreed that we could have used another day.