I arrived to Hangzhou early in the evening last night. I was surprised to note that it was surprisingly colder than it had been up north in Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Zhengzhou. I chalked it off to me being lucky and getting nice spring weather while up North. The taxi dropped me off at the Orange Hotel in Moganshan Lu (Moganshan Road) and after checking in and dropping my bags in my room (and discovering the room came with a goldfish named Grace and a rubik's cube to entertain myself) I went out in search of food. The receptionist at the hotel recommended a place across the street that had good and cheap dumplings. I went, and in fact they were good and very cheap (6 RMB for a group of 8? Yeah. Cheap.) and then found a Pearl Milk Tea kiosk right next to the hotel which made me very happy. With a stomach full of dumplings and pearl milk tea, I went to bed happy and looking forward to exploring Hangzhou the following day.
I got some less than stellar breakfast at the hotel this morning, after which I decided to go look for the train ticket kiosk. I needed to buy my train ticket for the Gaotie (bullet train) leaving from Hangzhou for Shanghai tomorrow morning as soon as possible to make sure that I would make it to Shanghai in time to catch my flight back to Chicago O'Hare in the afternoon. It basically took all morning of wandering around Wulinmen Road in the rain without an umbrella (which I refused to buy until 11 am when I felt really wet and miserable) to finally find it and purchase it. After that, I took a bus to Tiandi near Xihu lake. Once at Tiandi, I ducked into a Starbucks and hit there for a while, trying to morph from an Emicicle into a human being again.
That is when Strong, one of NW's friends who lives in Hangzhou called me up. I told her where I was and offered to go have lunch together.
While I waited for Stong, I saw that the rain subsided a bit so I when for a bit of a stroll and meditation around the gardens in Tiandi. It was miserably cold and I was miserably wet, but it was still quite breathtakingly gorgeous. When Strong came, we went for some noodles at Ajisen (a Japanese noodles chain) and for a stroll around part of Xihu. She recommended that I keep on walking through one of the causeways that cross the lake for the full experience and apologized for not being able to come with me. We parted ways and I just continued to walk.
It was a lovely last day in China, despite the awful weather in the morning. Just a day of walking around one of the most beautiful cities in the world next to one of the most beautiful lakes. It really is no wonder that this lake and this city has captured the imagination of innumerable poets and emperors and explorers throughout history. Looking out into Xihu lake in the afternoon after the morning rain, the inky landscape full of mist and mountains and far-off pagodas reminds me of traditional Chinese calligraphy paintings. The Sakuras (cherry-blossoms) and Magnolias are in full bloom as I walk through the causeway and the willows droop over the scattered tings on the edge of the lake. I felt the same way I felt at the Buddhist temple and at the Longmen Grottoes - oddly at peace, in harmony, and tranquil. The crowds of people walking by didn't bother me. There was something ethereal, something special about that place.
The poet Su Dongpo once wrote about West Lake:
"Ripping water shimmering on sunny day,
Misty mountains shrouded the rain;
Plain or gaily decked out like Xizi;
West Lake is always alluring."
Misty mountains shrouded the rain;
Plain or gaily decked out like Xizi;
West Lake is always alluring."
That's how I felt at that moment.
I resolved then and there to return someday and spend more than a day in Hangzhou to really bask in the beauty of Xihu (west lake) and its surroundings.
It was with a heavy heart and a gurgling hungry stomach that I got on a bus back to the hotel. I stuffed myself with 20 dumplings at the place across the street and washed them off with some more pearl milk tea. I stopped by the supermarket for some last-minute gift and I am now in my room with my bags all packed, in the company of Grace the Goldfish (who is merrily swimming around her little tank). I am leaving China tomorrow. Although part of me is not sad to go home (I do miss the West, miss my family, my friends, Luna...), it is with a bit of a heavy heart that I prepare to leave Hangzhou. Although I feel like I saw a lot of it, I really think I need to spend some more time here.
Next time, I suppose.
Next time I will come back to Hangzhou, and go to the edge of the desert to see Dunhuang and geek out at the collection of Buddhist caves there (and ride out to the Gobi in a camel), and go to see the Xinjiang Autonomous region in Urumqi, and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, the panda bears in Chengdu, a re-visit to beautiful Qingdao, the Shaolin temple near Luoyang (which, much to my chagrin, I realized was really close much too late), and the gardens in Suzhou. I also need to go to Tokyo and Kyoto and to see Mount Fuji in Japan. I need to see Seoul, South Korea, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I need to ride the transsiberian from Beijing to Saint Petersburg.
Now, how do I write a film that will get me to all those places for free? Or as a business expense??? HAha. I joke.
I'll make it there someday I'm sure. For now, I think I'll focus on New York - seeing M and N again, eating the best pastrami sandwich at Katz' Delicatessen, and catching the blooming Sakuras and Magnolias in Union Square and Central Park. :D
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