By Al Wong This is my experience in Beijing, China in the Summer of 2009. If you came to this webpage first, it's better if you start from the beginning of the story. Tuesday, July 21 Hangzhou, Leifeng Pagoda, Su Causeway, Tea Factory Leifeng Pagoda 1:11pm At the Leifeng Pagoda at West Lake in Hangzhou right now. Slept from about 4am to 8am and woke up to Happy Birthday music coming from an unknown location! Went to the bathroom and laid down again. Got the 8:45am wake up call. Tried to sleep until about 9:30am and checked my drying clothes. They were still pretty wet, especially my shorts! Skipped breakfast. Since I had little time left, I decided to get serious and plugged in the hair dryer to help dry my clothes! I managed to get one pair of shorts dry enough to wear although still very damp. I also managed to get my other clothes to "very damp" state and just packed them away. Put my check-in luggage in the hallway. Since my laundry was still wet and I was anticipating another hot and humid day, I wore my Tommy Bahamas linen shirt. It turned out to be the correct decison! :) I needed to get more AA batteries for my camera but this hotel had no stores(!?) The nearest store was 3 blocks away! When Steve, our tour guide, came down to the hotel lobby, I told him I needed to buy some batteries. He said I would have time to get them at the next sightseeing spot. Great. But when we got to the Leifeng Pagoda however, he didn`t give me time to buy the batteries. He immediately led the tour group up the pagoda. I had no choice but to follow. It was interesting inside. They built the pagoda literally right on top of the ruins of the previous pagoda. Around the inside walls, they have exquisite wood carving panels telling a story. And it had air conditioning. Of course, my digital camera ran out of juice shortly afterwards leaving me peeved. I went downstairs to get 5 sets of AA battteries. But I have no motivation to go back up the pagoda again since we are meeting down here in only 15 minutes. When the tour guide took us here, I had no idea why. It wasn't clear why this place was significant. After I got back home in the USA, I did some googling and this is what I found out about the Leifeng Pagoda. The original pagoda was built in 975 AD but collapsed in 1924. It was rebuilt in 2002 literally on top of the ruins of the original pagoda. One of the pagoda's claim to fame is its tie to the Legend of the White Snake which is a well known folk story in China. Su Causeway 6:57pm We went to Su Causeway. This was a long pleasant walkway through a park. There were plenty of people here and the place had a party atmosphere. I wish we could have spent more time here. We went on a boatride on the lake there. We were going to see these 3 pagodas that were in the middle of the lake. What significance these pagodas have, I don`t know. But the boat ride was fun! In fact, I have no idea of the significance of this place. Our tour guide, Steve, wasn't very clear about it. After I got back home in the USA, I did some googling and this is what I found out about the Su Causeway. It is one of the causeways in West Lake in Hangzhou. In fact, its whole history is tied to West Lake. Chinese Government Mandatory Stop: Tea Factory Then we went to a famous tea factory here. They make the Dragon Well green tea. Even I have heard of this brand of tea. Grace, the tea factory lady, gave a great presentation regarding the "emperor's" grade tea which is the highest quality tea they grow. I never had this kind of tea before! It was really good and different. I learned something new about tea too. I ended up buying a set of 4 boxes of emperor`s tea for $1,300 RMB! Grace was a good salesman and had a great product! I knew this factory was a mandatory government stop for tourists but they actually had something I wanted to buy! On the bus to the night show. Before, we had a very good dinner including this very tasty fish. It was my first meal of the day because I blew off breakfast and they skipped lunch today! "Impression West Lake" Night Show 9:41pm Saw the night show at West Lake. It was a pretty good show performed outside right on the lake! It was still very hot and humid outside around 7:45pm. The only complaint I have for the show is some of the acts were rather far away. They should be closer so the audience could see them better. I took some videos though. We`ll see if they come out. There were bats flying over the audience which initially made me apprehensive. Then I realized they were probably hunting for insects that would bite us like mosquitoes. So the bats were a good thing. They flew very fast and quiet. After the show, we got some ice cream at the local KFC! I got this orange drink which wasn`t what I expected. I should have ordered a hamburger like Dave! On the bus to our yet again new hotel. According to Steve, it`s a 3 hour ride to Huangshan from Hangzhou! We`re going to arrive there after midnight! I hope the hotel is as good as the Tianyuan Tower Hotel in Hangzhou. 1:01am It took 2.5 hours to drive to this hotel, the Huangshan International Hotel. I don`t like this hotel. For one thing, they don`t have Internet in the room. For another, they are selling condoms and anti-bacterial wash in the bathroom! Kind of makes you think they normally rent their rooms by the hour! :) Brought out my damp laundry and am hanging them mostly in the closet. I`m afraid to lay any damp things on the furniture! The Next Day China 2009 My Writings Al's Wild Web Page