24th November - Hang Zhou

I’ve been to five star hotels all over the world but this hotel tops the charts for me. As of right this instant I am typing this entry on a BenQ flatscreen CPU with a free, yes i said FREE, Internet connection!! This is heaven. Even the top hotels I've been in never offered this service FREE.

Unfortunately, the environment i woke up in was quite different.

I thought I had gotten used to the wood-hard matresses, seems not. The honking sounds of the impatient traffic outside my hotel room woke me up way before any teenager should be made to. From the first honk it was a constant battle between my sleep and sound. Furthermore, the shanghai air pollution had finally got to my sinuses (black mucus) and the mucus built up had caused my throat to inflame, become dry, and sore.

After having a short breakfast at the hotel buffet (porridge for me) we were introduced by Peggy (our tour agent) to our tour guide for the Su Zhou trip – Katy (pronounced like Cathy) “a bit like hello kitty”, she says.

Getting to Su Zhou was a long trip, I was given a paracetamol and clarinase which I think helped out a bit. I slept the whole way through, meaning that i missed out on our 6000 yuan tour guide’s commentaries. The sleep was good though and the clarinase had done its job to my nose, the throat on the other hand was still sore.

Taro/Yam Pie only found in Mcdonald's China

After a short Mcdonald’s brunch we headed off to Lei Feng Pagoda.

This pagoda is built around west lake, one of the most famous lakes in china, built by the order of Xu Zhi the poet . The pagoda itself is extremely new and modern. It had fallen and was rebuilt in 2001. There are 3 stories to why the pagoda had fallen and had to be rebuilt.

1. With referrence to the famous story "Madam White Snake", Lady White was actually buried below the temple ages and ages ago, so when her son came and prayed for her to be released, the pagoda fell and she was set free.

2. Long ago during the Silk Godesses’ birthday, many ppl would come to the pagoda to pray, and when they left they took a piece of the pagoda’s foundation because the brick had sandskrit writing on it. The culprits believed the bricks were good luck. Although they did not know what the hell the words meant. Imagine *cue ripple effect*On a pagoda brick written in sandskrit - MADE IN CHINA. :p

3. During World War 2 the tower was burnt down by the Japanese.

Of these 3 stories the last 2 are true, the pagoda’s downfall was due to both those reasons.

The pagoda was the most modern pagoda I have ever been to, fully equipped with an escalator to climb the stairs. Moreover, when u reach the tower base there is an elevator that takes u to the top of the pagoda.

The view from on top the pagoda is beautiful, it was just a pity that the sky was full of haze. But it is not only the sight above to behold. Below the pagoda are the ruins of the old pagoda that had fallen down. Scientists have also found a tomb below the pagoda which contained Xue Li Zi.

Ruins of the old pagoda. Notice the money thrown on the floor.

Good monks are vegetarians. This means a lot of beancurd is left in their tummies. Consequently, when the monk is cremated the things in their stomach are hard to burn so the result is not only pure ash but also "stomach balls". It is very rare that you can find these balls and it is believed that only true monks get them. These balls or Xue Li Zi are considered sacred and kept beneath the pagoda.

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*Written at a later time, back in Malaysia*:
I am rather upset with the photos. Of the photos we took in Hang Zhou the whole set of Lei Feng Pagoda have disappeared, except for the two pics i have posted.

Of the missing pics that i wanted to post on this blog is:
1. Amongst the coins thrown into the ruins of the Old Pagoda there were a few RM1 notes
2. The magnificent view from the top of Lei Feng Pagoda
3. The high tech elevators which were glass on all sides
4. The escalators that led up all the way to the pagoda

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Green Tea will never be the same to me again. The whole village itself is devoted to ONLY, and I mean ONLY, Chinese tea. After passing countless hills carpeted with tea trees we finally stopped at a tea field which already had a few tour buses up its carpark.

Tea trees

We watched the process in which tea was done here by hand- heated twice, with a few days interval between the heatings. The person who picks the tea leaves plays an important role in the tea’s grade. So much for male chauvinism as tea leaves picked by women are considered to be of the highest grade. As far tea is concerned, women possess softer hands therefore meaning less damage to tea leaves.

Ushered into a private room, we were then shown by a tea university graduate (I didn’t know they existed, go figure O.o) the different grades of tea and the uses of tea. This was all done through a short tea ceremony.

Tea.

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Song Dynasty Park is “like Disneyland” (quote Katy).

SDP was a pretty cool place, it was just opened in may this year and it already has its fair share of tourists today (weekday!). The whole park is like a giant fortress and inside it is a town with a Song Dynasty theme.

We watched some acted out kung fu fighting, watched Chinese puppetry and dressed in Chinese clothes (for 5 yuan). Oh yes, before I forget.. IT WAS FREEZING COLD!

Kungfu fighting to the left

Wan sui, wan wui, wan wan sui!

Of the entire park though, the ending show was really the icing on the cake. I’ve been to Disneyworld, deamworld, universal studios, you name it, but the show I watched tonight was one of the best I’ve seen. It was a mixed show of dancing, acrobatics, laser lights and special effects. There were horses on the stage at one point! Although the performance required a few tweaks I would grant it a 4.9 outta 5. Later we found out that the reason to this extravagant production is the World Expo 2006 which will be held right here in Hangzhou.

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Dinner was set in a restaurant floating on the west lake. It had only opened for 2 years but according to Katy it had become hangzhou’s most popular restaurant by it first few months. I must say the food was pretty good.

Forgot the restaurant's name.

Waitress used a palm pilot which immediately send orders to the kitchen.

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So here I am ending my post in one of the best hotel rooms I have ever been in. A flatscreen cpu with a free broadband connection, how do you beat that?

http://www.hcgjhotel.com/