Hangzhou!

Somewhat on a whim, a week or so in advance, a friend told me she was going to Hangzhou, where she used to work and asked if me I wanted to come. So, wanting to travel more before I leave, I decided, yes, absolutely. Though, admittedly, I knew about jacksquat about it before I went. It was one of the prettiest cities I have been in while in China. I landed in blue skies and greenery. Like, I saw large patches of grass for this first time since Australia. While there, we found out something called G20 was about to happen (sometime in August) where leaders from all over the world were coming to Hangzhou to discuss.. things. So, in preparation of that, the city was kind of crazy. For example, it was quite hard to find a hotel that would rent a room to foreigners. Once we acquired one of those rooms you were NOT allowed visitors, local or otherwise. We had a slip from the hotel that we had to show the clerk before even being allowed on the elevator up to our room, we also had to carry that paper with us to prove we were registered somewhere. For the first time in China, at a restaurant, like 9 police officers came in and asked for passports and locals for ID cards, if we didn't have those slips we would have been taken to the police station. What would have happened after that, I have no idea. Also in preparation for the summit, the roads had been redone, bus stops had been redone and (the fronts only) of buildings had been repainted. Anyways, upon arrival, this is the (rather pretty, honestly) airport I walked into. I didn't get a better picture, unfortunately.

On the way into the main city hub, I saw lots of neat buildings (it's hard to take pictures while in a cab...).

Lovely bunny decorations at the hotel!

After arriving and getting a hotel, we met up with a family that Maeghan used to tutor their 8-year-old daughter for. The grandmas cooked us AMAZING traditional Chinese food...and stuffed us to the gills! Speaking of... I ate fish gills for the first time, strange texture, wasn't my favorite, not terrible. There were eggplants and other veggies and beef dishes and it ended with this super sticky rice with sugar that was also awesome. Then, the mother, Yo Yo, and her daughter, Angela, took us to the Lingyin Temple. We didn't get into any of the temples but just walking around the outside was spectacular.

Yo Yo knew a lot of the history and some stories about it, the best part? Angela, her daughter, who is EIGHT, mind you, was translating. This little girl was so impressive!

Lingyin Temple was pretty much where I took pictures in Hangzhou. It was a whirlwind weekend.

That night we went out to dinner at one of the expat spots Maeghan frequented before coming to Guangzhou. I met some of her local and foreign friends from there. 

The next day in the INSANE HEAT, we trekked over to West Lake, which I really wish I'd gotten more pictures of, it was beautiful. I was paying the price from the night before so while Maeghan and her friends went to a movie, I went back to the hotel and took a nap. Later, we went to meet up with her old co-teacher who now works at a Four Seasons in Hangzhou. Free dinner at the Four Seasons? Yes, please. We had chicken, fish, salads and other things, all delicious, and even ice cream for dessert! It was an absolutely amazing time, but, alas a whirlwind and we had to get up around 4 the next morning to catch a plane so we didn't stay out very late. We did spot a place for street tattoos when we were walking through a night market though, had to refuse but there was someone there getting one. Yikes...

Not as clear as I'd hoped but, West Lake at night.

Kaiping!

We went on an adventure! And by we I mean my roommate Drew, her co-teacher, and myself. We took a bus to Kaiping and then we took another bus to a town called Chikan, where we stayed in a hostel. (A very nice hostel! So, now I have 2 of those under my belt!) The pictures are from Chikan and at the different villages which had the diaolous. Diaolous are fortified multi-storey watchtowers, generally made of reinforced concrete. These towers are located mainly in Kaiping County, Guangdong province, China. These villages were started after Chinese who had immigrated west (England, France, US, etc.) came back with or without families so much of the architecture has lots of western influences but still had some very traditional aspects. A lot of the furniture was brought back with them as well so a lot of those pieces were very western as well. There were 3 types of diaolous, there were homes, communal and defensive towers. The communal diaolous were used in case the villagers that didn't live in the diaolous needed refuge either from floods or if the villages were under attack. The defensive towers were built to be able to keep an eye on incoming attacks and to be able to protect their village.

This is across the river, down 2 buildings is the hostel we stayed in.

The street market, also the street where I ate eel for the first time! And also had some really good chicken and pork from a cast iron cooker. This is where we ate most of the food we ended up eating :) 

Kind of dilapidated but you can definitely see the western influence on architecture even before going to the villages.

This was the entranced to the hostel we stayed in, it was pretty neat, very Chinese. (obviously..)

You can see Kaiping and Chikan (where we stayed) but, unfortunately, you can't really see the villages on this but we bussed/biked/walked to 3 of the 5. (I rode a bike for the first time in, like, ten years..it really is like riding a bike!..haha..get it?) The first full day there was the day we rode the bikes. Needless to say, I had very sore butt the next day. Totally worth it, though! If you can see, in the upper left ish part of the map you can see Zili Village Diaolou Cluster, Fang Clan Watch Tower and Tangkou Li Yuan, those I know we made it to!

View out the backdoor of our hostel room. I thought it was pretty. Daunting weather, though!

The first picture was food cart deliciousness. The second is eel! It was good. 

Chicken on the top and seasonal vegetables (with pork)

Another view of the street we ate from!

Temple in Chikan

River by where we stayed

The landscape was gorgeous!

Rice everywhere!

Mini replica of the diaolou village we were in! It was super neat but for some reason made me think of a graveyard. Actually, it made me think of Bingham Hill near Masonville.

mmm sooo good

Basically, rice pancakes, some had stuff inside, some mixed with purple sweet potato, overall, very strange but quite delicious. One of the more breakfast-y things I've had for Chinese breakfast in China

This was before the rain, the sky was beautiful (AND BLUE!!!)

The decor was very Chinese even when the furniture was very western.

Gorgeous views!

It was a verrrrry long view down as well, this was 7 stories up.

These were 2 of the biggest ones we got to see, both homes.

The crazy part about these is that even though (most of) the diaolous weren't still inhabited, the villages were still very much lived in. There were gardens and chickens and people all over still. 

Took this for my mama

These were JUST after it DOWNPOURED on us for about 30-45 minutes. Already beautiful blue skies!

Grain Grinder

Loom

I ate goose. I was not a fan.

The inside and the view from one of the diaolous

Aaaaand I liked the sign: This shrine was established to carry on the ancestor's virtues, and the offerings were to remember the ancestor's good reputation. Ji qiu cheng zuo shu zu doujian xin xiang.

Kaiping/Chikan was amazing. My first hostel without a western toilet (yes, I struggled a bit) but everything I ate and everything we saw was amazing and completely worth it. There aren't a lot of tourists in the area which was nice but I was so very glad that Drew's co-teacher was willing to go with us. They spoke Cantonese there, so even with the little Mandarin Drew and I know, it wouldn't have helped at all! I haven't walked so many stairs since.. oh.. well.. probably the Great Wall..