Thoughts on China

Link to the other pix of today…

As I sit at the desk in my hostel room, or rather cubby hole (which is nice and cozy as compared to too small), and try to collect my thoughts about Hangzhou, I realize that many thoughts simply cannot be conveyed. As communication takes place, the sender encodes their thoughts and experiences into words (and pictures, etc.). But the receiver only has their experiences to try to make
sense of the message. If the thought is too abstract, or the experience so different from what the receiver is used to, it may be hard to communicate at all. Don’t get me wrong, Hangzhou is not abstract or difficult to relate to other things, it is the impressions and memories from sitting on 西湖 (Xī Hú, or West Lake in Hangzhou) that are difficult to relate. So, for now, I’ll simply relate my experiences and leave my thoughts for another time…

I arrived in Hangzhou late in the morning on Friday, after a pleasant hour and a half train ride from Shanghai. I got a taxi from the train station (which, as you can imagine after a packed train unloads, took a little bit of time, but the process was very smooth and went fairly quickly). I decided to stay at the Youth Hostel which is a few yards from West Lake. It took a little to find it, but I got their and found they only had dorm beds. I figured it wouldn’t matter and went ahead with booking it, but no sooner had I said “OK”, than another worker came up and said that a room had just opened up. So, for Y180 ($24), I would be staying in a private room with bathroom right on ??!

Well, I put the bags in the room and immediately went out to walk around part of 西湖 (Xī Hú). After exploring quite a while, both on the lake shore and in the park that surrounds the lake, I came across a hill that I, of course, had to climb (I think I must have a little of my father in me. There wasn’t a mountain that exists that he didn’t want to climb). Well, besides another really nice area, I came upon a tea house on the hill that had a wonderful view of the lake and had a very nice, old style. Two couples were sitting at outdoor tables drinking Longjing (the most famous green tea in China, that is grown near Hangzhou) and I asked in no-doubt stilted Chinese where I may get a cup of tea. They pointed to the house down the hill a little way and the gentlemen accompanied me and told the attendent inside to set me up. So, there I sat, with a wonderful view of West Lake (西湖, Xī Hú), a nice glass of Longjing and bowl of peanuts. How peaceful…how wonderful…It is these types of thoughts that I was referring to in the first paragraph…in fact, there’s a saying in China that goes 上有天堂，下有苏杭  (Shàng yǒu tiāntáng, xià yǒu sūháng, or “Above, there is heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou.”),

张文进, note in the picture below that you don’t always have to use very little 茶 to be “professional” ;>)

Well, after refreshing the water a few times and paying the Y20 ($2.66), I went on my way. It was getting later in the afternoon by this time. A couple of boatmen asked me if I wanted a ride, but because it was Y80 an hour and 就我一个人 (jiù wǒ yī gèrén, or “I’m just one person.”), I didn’t go. A little while later, however, I saw a boat (resembling a Venetian gondola, for four passengers) that had three passengers and they wanted to know if I wanted to go. At Y20, I went ahead.

There was a foreign male and two women who both appeared to be Han Chinese, but one was wearing a head cover (not covering the face, though) that is typical of the Middle East. Exchanging the pleasantries of “Where are you from?”, etc., it turned out that the man was from Iraq. I thought about how ironic it was that an American and an Iraqi would meet on a boat in China…not quite as strange as “Lost”, but nonetheless… Anyway, he is a Kurd, who seem to get the short end of everything over there. The Sunnis and Shiites fight for power and control in Iraq, while Turkey wields an iron hand in the north. We had a good conversation about the situation there and we agreed on a lot of things. It was an enjoyable boat ride, and, at the end, he refused to let me pay my share. We took pictures and parted ways…

Scott in the boat on West Lake, Hangzhou

My new Iraqi friend…

After that, I walked a little more, took a few pictures of the sunset and then thought about what to eat for dinner…

Well, as I was looking for yet another Chinese restaurant to try, I happened upon this…

I thought, with only two Indian restaurants in Tallahassee, why not try it. It turned out to be very good (in my opinion). I had the lamb curry, garlic naan, and (please forgive me, Allwyn) I forgot the name of the other dish, that was basically cucumbers and the like in yogurt).

Like I said, everything was delicious and everyone was in full costume. Most of the employees were Indian, though they did have a few Chinese ladies dressed up in Indian garb…

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day…