Zhuji (诸暨) - The home of ugh....socks and XiShi (西施)

        So I decided to try the bicycle out for a longer cycle yesterday. I heard that Zhuji wasn't too far away so I headed off early to avoid the scorching heat.
       I forgot that it is more about the humidity than the heat here. After abut 15 km , I thought I might achieve the impossible and fully convert from a solid to a liquid. The only thing that saved me was drinking litres and litres of water and (not so) iced tea.
   Anyway, it was good to stop in some small villages and relax.

Where next, Michelin man?

Different style from the norm here

3 storey houses are all the rage in the countryside

       As I am sure everyone knows , Zhuji is home to many sock making facilities as well as home to one of the 4 famous beautiful woman from the past. (四大美女) I went to the village of XiShi but all I could see were new apartments and shopping centres. Not such a beautiful sight. Although, I did spot a fine flowere arrangement that she would have been proud of.

There are more flowers per acre than ....ugh....sheep

There seem to be murals painted everywhere in China .  They definately add to the atmosphere of the place.

I think the original Ronaldo had that child's haircut at one time.

gangs of fish in the pond

           After hours of cycling , I reached the ouskirts of Zhuji and decided to visit a temple. It was the first Buddhist temple in Zhejiang where I actually saw some monks. I am not sure if they were too happy to see me though. They saw me strolling about the temple and then asked if I could take the temperature test. Then they gave me a new mask and sent me on my way.
           Well , they did give me some apples before I left. I guess this is a symbol of peace (part of the word for apple 苹果 and peace 平安) sound similar in Chinese so I am taking it as a peaceful gesture (In some parts of China, Christmas Eve is known as pingan jie and people give apples on that day.)

A peaceful place

Burning the incense

The temple was located in the countryside right beside some fields which seemed to be full of birds looking over the produce.

guarding the food

Apart from this , I happened to cycle by an amusement area , an empty amusement area. It looked like it was built but never opened.

I think it is Halloween themed.

Trying to escape the floods (before the floods have arrived)

To be honest , it was nice just to cycle around and look at the different buildings.

Many houses had this kind of antenna  at the top of the house.

older slated house by the lake

Hangzhou (杭州) - meijiawu （梅家坞）

  Hangzhou is a huge city about 100km from Yiwu. On one level it is an IT hub. On a different level, it is a very traditional area in Zhejiang. As one famous dude said, 上有天堂， 下有苏杭  (above is heaven , on earth is Suzhou and Hangzhou). I guess the famous traveller Marco Polo agreed with that phrase when he visited Hangzhou a few centuries back....

                                                                                                             The man himself (Well, a statue of him)#

Although things have changed a bit sine Polo's time, Hangzhou still remains a beautiful place

The center of Hangzhou contains the west lake. You can see old style boats mixing with touristy dragon sized boats here.

                                                                                                    Traditional style boat                 

Nice comparison between old and new

 If you go to see the west lake, you will see a statue of a buffalo. It is a tribute to an old story which states that the lake used to go dry and whenever it went dry a golden water buffalo would refill the lake with water. Locals wanted to catch the buffalo so they naturally drained the lake. As expected the buffalo appeared and he spewed out water in an angry manner. Legend has it that all the locals that were waiting to catch the buffalo were drowned in the water and the buffalo has not been seen since that day.

Trying to catch the elusive golden water buffalo

Better not make him angry

Apart from the water buffalo one can see other animals in the area. I was lucky enough one such squirrel take some nuts from a tourist.

No need to feed this critter

This day was a scorcher of a day so people found refuge in pagodas or just places with roofs (or parasols)

A nice place to read

  One can also see the phenomenon of wearing old style Hanfu garments.. Woman (predominantly) like to dress up in the old style hanfu and get their photos taken or just take a stroll (as these clothes are very breathable on a hot day.)

These clothes were used for three millenia 

(right up to the start of the Qing dynasty 1644 when it was outlawed)

I came here to see the tea fields. So I grabbed a quick lunch and heaed out to MeiJianWu to see and then sample the tea.

Egg , rice , tofu and meat.

The tofu goes well with the other components.

The famous LongJing tea (龙井茶) from Hangzhou

One can go to the village and sit at the teahouses.

One buys the leaves and top up the cup with hot water from the flask provided while one can watch the scenery.

 At nighttime, one can go back into the town and see the pagodas shine.

Travelling in style ....

assuming there were people there to move the carriage.

Maybe I could volunteer to lift the carriage.

Next time....

A pagoda lighting up the sky at night.