A Tour of West Lake

Ms Waterman
(teacher)

We spent today with Dana, our friend who was the China Exchange teacher from Hangzhou this year. She and her husband offered to bring us to West Lake to visit some of the scenic spots. The weather cooperated wonderfully! Even though it was quite warm (almost 80 F!), we were thrilled to see clear blue sky and bright sunshine. It’s the first really clear blue sky that we’ve seen since we were in Lijiang a month ago, and it makes me more aware that I’ll never take our beautiful blue skies at home in Massachusetts for granted again!

Our first stop was the Leifeng Pagoda which we climbed to see the view from the seventh floor. The lake lay below us and we could identify a few places that we recognized: the Broken Bridge and the Long Bridge. Dana also showed us the island with the three reflecting pools that are one of the lake’s scenic spots. Inside the Pagoda, we spent some time admiring the carved wooden panels covering the walls which tell the story of White Snake, a legend about Hangzhou. The story tells the love story between a human and an immortal god and ends in the destruction of the Pagoda. In reality, the Pagoda was destroyed many years ago by an earthquake, but I think I prefer the legend’s explanation of a vengeful immortal. After spending over an hour in our woodworking class this week painstakingly trying to shape a small piece of wood into something resembling a heart, I have a new appreciation for the art of carving, and I marveled at the level of detail and the intricate shapes and figures that the artist created to tell the story.


After leaving the Pagoda, Dana’s husband suggested that we visit a section of the park that is known for its flowers, specifically tulips. Despite the crushing traffic on the foot paths (there were so many people everywhere!), the park was beautiful and I loved it because I’ve never seen such colors in tulips! The most astonishing were a dark purple color that was almost black (called Queen of Night), but I also loved the yellow flowers with red stripes (called Firework). The blooms were also much bigger than I’ve seen at home; they were the size of my two fists! We spent some time taking photos of the flowers (and dodging people trying to walk by us on the paths) and resting in an open field that would have been an excellent picnic destination if we hadn’t planned to have lunch in a nearby restaurant. Lunch was delicious and we really enjoyed sitting outside in the breeze and shade.

Our last stop on West Lake was a much quieter spot where we walked along paths over and around a small bend in the lake. We saw incredible cherry blossoms and really enjoyed the calm atmosphere. I commented to Dana that even though the area was so congested, it still made me happy that so many people were making an attempt to get outside in such beautiful weather. At home, the parks and paths near where I live are busy, too, but I’ve noticed that people from all parts of the population in China spend time outside hiking and walking, not just people who are young and fit and who have dogs (which is often who I see near where I live).

When we returned to school, we learned that Peter’s family had invited us to join them for dinner at their home. With them, we ate wonderful vegetables, Beijing duck, and matcha dough pouches filled with tofu, chicken, and vegetables. I had never eaten those before and they were delicious! I was even more impressed that Peter’s mom had made them entirely by hand. Maybe I’ll ask her to teach me how next weekend!

After dinner, we took the metro (new, sparkling clean, fast, and labeled in English!) to get to the Citizen Center, the center of local government as well as the home of a huge shopping mall and a theatre used for concerts. We watched a light show in a fountain where the music was music paired with the lights both in the fountain and on the faces of the buildings surrounding the plaza. The music was a combination of upbeat Lady Gaga and soaring Josh Groban songs, among others. When it had finished, Peter guided us to the city balcony to see the Qian Tang Jiang (jiang = river) where all of the buildings on the other side were illuminated. We saw the building that was constructed for the 2016 G20 Summit as well as the one for the 2022 Asian Games (a small-scale olympics-style event). The river is very wide in that part of the city (much wider than the Charles in Boston), and the lights along the other side showed us just how big the city skyline is. We had seen it from our view in the Pagoda, but it was really reinforced at night by the buildings’ lights and the river in the moonlight. During our stay here, everyone has told us that Hangzhou has been developing very quickly in the past 10 years or so, and it is evident in the part of the city that we saw last night. Peter told us that the Hangzhou metro currently has 4 lines and that the government has declared that 6 more will be competed by 2022. It’s hard to imagine what the city must have looked like 15 years ago when this exchange program started and what it will look like in another 15 years!