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.