The next place that we visited was a tea plantation called Mei Jia Zhuang... Cos one of the 10 new Hangzhou scenes to visit is Long Jing Wen Cha...
Right before we arrived at the tea plantation, our tour guide told us that normal Long Jing is not the same as Xi Hu Long Jing.. due to the nature of the fertile soil that they have and the weather that they have... Xi Hu Long Jing tea has got a special fragrance that even the Japanese, who love the tea.. when they tried to export the technology and saplings to japan, they just couldnt grow the tea with the same fragrance and so they in the end just have to import it...
Xi Hu Long Jing tea is famous throughout history. During Qian Long emporer's time, he came visting and then, seeing that the emporer is here, the poor farmer woman this Hangzhou decided to serve the emporer some tea. When he drank the tea, he found that there was no taste at all and thus rose to leave in anger.. but just when he stepped to the door, the "hui gan" (returning of a dry flavour) rose from his stomach back to his mouth and he realized what a good tea he has been served. But as he has already stood up, it would be unbecoming to sit down again and so he promptly turned to his guard and said, "I would like to visit the tea plantation." the emporer stayed on and drank more tea and brought some home to his mother.
His mother was so angry when she drank the tea and said to him, "Such fine tea and you only gave me such a little of it?!" And this, the emporer order tonnes of tea to be offered and this is how Xi Hu Long Jing tea became the tea of all royal banquets from there on....
Xi Hu Long Jing is also famous all over the world.. and it is all thanks to Mr Zhou Enlai, former prime minister of China who paid for three cans of the fine tea and gave it to the visiting US president... Initially, there was uproar that the chinese prime minister had actually given the US president such a cheap present as a coarse peasant tea.. But upon furthur research, they discovered the value behind the tea and thus it created headlines all across the globe and the tea became famous. in return for this gift, the US president also sent China a tree....
This is how they fry the tea.. as you can see, the wok is often shiny because the tea will give out some sort of natural oil, this prevents the tea from being burnt and furthur allows the tea to exude fragrance.. and the way to FRY the tea is use the hand and rub the tea leaves on the lightly heated wok....
That is the lady making some tea for us. The put the tea leaves into the cup and just add boiling water..
This is a poster that depicts how the tea is grown and harvested.. the best tea, according to them is the tea after the rainy season.. the first week after rainy season is called Bao Bei tea.. (baby) and is the most expensive as it is few in production and also the best quality and has the best fragrance... those tat are plucked two weeks later are called Gu Niang tea (lady) and after tat will be the Xi Fu (daughter in law) tea...
The one the served us is the daughter in law tea... But the price diff between the daughter in law tea and the lady tea is almost double!:)
Ace and Max very tired after the long day.. especially Max since he had to lug all the things we bought just now from the shops...
This is our Xi Hu Long Jing:) See, green tea leaves tat look like veggie! And the taste of it is nice... soothing and did you know tat the people here like to eat tea? Apparently, the people here cherish their tea so after they finish drinking they will EAT it.. and it is polite to finish eating the tea:)
Max staring at his tea and thinking about when to eat it...
Ace trying to EAT the tea... He gives this sort of expression but he continues to eat and eat!
Ms Mei helping to pack tea.. theese are the three diff grades of tea... it is amazing how much tea they can pack in a small can. Here... people buy tea based on cans.. they do not buy based on seperate weight.. just big can or small can...
Got special way to put the tea in so tat you dun spoil the tea leaves one.. dun try this at home:)
ace trying to eat the tea again.. ahahahahah
We bought two cans of tea for our parents.. and then went shopping at the supermart downstairs.... (I had wanted to use the loo but this is the first toilet in my current travel in China tat i cannot bear to use!) Max is so happy to find his Qing Mei Jiu.. (Plum brandy) and I forbid him to buy it cos remember who had to wash toilet till 4am when someone drank 7 cups of it?????:P
Goodbye, tea plantations...
Next stop was the famous temple Lingyin Temple.. together with Jingci Temple in Hangzhou, they are the two most prominent temples in Hangzhou... Because the tour guide (whom I presume is buddhist) talked alot about Lingyin Temple and his beliefs of buddhism.. even though I am buddhist, he sort of turned me off lor.. cos the things that he talks about are totally different from my beliefs! Plus if you go in, got to pay entrance ticket.. and once you go in, got to offer incense (which cost 99 yuan).. i figure we will give it a miss and tour the outside of the temple..
Afterward though, I sort of regret.. cos when I returned to Dubai, my sis who had visited there before told me that the buddha statues there were very very big and grand and it was so beautiful that she cried..when she saw the buddhas... But then I guess everything happens for a reason and maybe i am just not fated with Ling Yin Temple:)
The park surrounding the temple is not that bad either:)
Ace said he was hungry and we were trying to find a restaurant but we couldnt see any. Best we could find is Hagen Dazz....
So we paid for 60RMB of ice cream.. super ex man but is better than no food!:) Dam, the ice cream is almost as ex as the meal tat we had at Qing He Fang yesterday afternoon!;)
Ace chose a cookies and cream one and i chose a coffee and almond crunch.. I think my flavour tastes nicer:) wahahahahaha
And then wat is max doing leh.. he bz working!
That's Ace going, "See, my daddy working all the time.."
Ace pretends to ride the mystical lion...
We saw lots of these cute figurines.. look like the one tat Ace's karate teacher gave him:)
And then we saw it.. a vegeterian restaurant! Oh why??? Why do we have to find it only when we have 10 minutes left...:(
But we found another shop selling vegeterian titbits! yeah! We even found lots of vegeterian snacks and the kao fu that we ate in Shanghai and so we bought some as well:)
Then we went to wait at our bus but alas, the driver said we had to wait another 10 minutes cos check out this guy in orange overalls.. he is like mechanic of some sort and his "equipment" is for helping to add petrol or oil tot he busses!
While waiting, Ace decided to be creative.. he made the scanning machines you see at airports and started scanning his dad for metals.. wahahahahaha:)
Next and very last stop.. 黄龙吐翠 (which means something like yellow dragon spits out greenery).. it is a area in the west lake known for the many bamboos growing there and there is a famous temple there for people to pray for affinity with having children, having a good career.. more money...good marriage... good academic results.. etc...
That is the yellow dragon they were talking about I guess:) check out all the ladies who are touring with us in the same group.. I mean I think that when you are touring, you expect to walk around alot right? But instead of wearing comfy shoes, they are all dressed up to the nines and all wearing high heels like going fashion show or shopping in orchard like tat! Amazing!
I am told tat the "national costume" when it comes to shoes for PRC is black shoes for men and high heels for women.. so no matter wat the men wear on top, they will still wear black shoes (which explains why I always see chinese tourists from China wearing shorts or bermudas with black shoes and socks!!!) And because of this the women are perpetually in heels! They will wear pyjamas go market and match that with heels lor! Hahahahha...
Speaking of which, I must say I managed to catch a few people walking around at night in pyjamas like what my friends told me..(In the past, wearing PJs is a sign of status as only the rich can afford PJs so they tend to wear their PJs and walk around town at night to flaunt their wealth!!) Too bad i couldnt take photo... cos they were too near to me by the time i saw them...
We went into this place and there was this like game.. it is called tou yuan chi.. (throwing/creating affinity pond) So there in the middle of the pond is this lotus with 6 chidlren carrying this golden coin with a hole in the middle.. so you got to use money in exchange for those fake olden coins.. and then depending on what you want to pray for, you stand there and throw the coin into the hole.. if you can get three coins into the hole, your wish will come true.. i dun like it cos if you DO manage to throw the coin into the hole, you will be notified via a maniac laughter that you are successful! Why of so many sounds effect they can choose they choose the macabre maniac laughter i will never understand...
Ace trying out for a coin tat gives him good results;) But Ace is not a very good aim.. irregardless I am sure this intelligent boy can get good results when he puts his mind to it:)
Max teaching Ace how to throw the coin correctly..
This one very difficult to take photo of cos there is always someone standing there and throwin coins.. hahahaha
Remember how i said this is an area well known for bamboos? Check out this cute little bamboo shoot (the purple one on the right..)
Actually hor, everywhere we go, people are making those peanut sesame sort of biscuit tat my mum loves.. if we were travelling here from Singapore, I sure will buy! But because if I buy and bring to dubai, by time i go back to sgp, already lao hong already.. so I din buy lor.. din wanna become fat fat...
See the little boxes shaped like a gong? If you pay, you can reach in for a reading to tell your fortune and your affinity with the related subject you were asking about..
When max saw this, he says must touch to heng heng so tat we can have another bb:) hahahahaa.
Got Ace to take this photo for us.. not bad not bad...
These bamboos.. even though you cannot see it in the picture, when you touch, are square, tat is why they are called FANG ZHU... square bamboos...
Ace trying to carry the wedding sedan with the bride inside...
Check out the shy little bride... wahahahaahah
So beautiful...
We were very tired by the time we finished the tour and we were soooo lucky in that we found a cab just when we walked out into the roads cos someone was alighting in this area... we asked the cab driver to recommend a nice place to have dinner and he suggested this restaurant called San Kai Yuan tat is near our hotel and even suggested that he send us there instead of to our hotel and we can walk back to our hotel after our meal and a good rest.. Sounds good!
But it is a very strange restaurant.. they serve coke and beer all in the same little red wine glass.. hahahaha
Cheers!
The very bored Ace made a bag holder for me to hang my bag at the table:) wahahahaa
I noticed that no matter wat they fry here, the people like to fry with some beancurd skin..
As we liked the salted egg with pumpkin thingy.. we ordered it again...
This dish is called xishi toufu...just some sweet cold dish tat is beancurd skin... taste like inari skin:)
This one was yummilicious.. just cauliflower sitr fried.. very good:)
After dinner, we started to walk home and by chance saw these interesting artwork of all the occupations in old Hangzhou... This one I think is food seller...
This one is chicken seller..
Carpenter...
Umbrella maker...
This one is selling make up or cigarrettes...
fisherman or fish seller...
Pot or jug seller..
Fan seller..
Dentist..
This one I am not very sure what they are doing...
Max say this one is just two sanba women.. wahaahah.. got occupation like tat one meh...
Flute seller and tailor... Ace also pretending to play the flute...
Sorry, this one is sell make up one..
I think this is chinese sinseh:)
When we went back.. after a rest, we decide to go to the night market again...
These two boys are crazy over this exercise...
I so regret not buying these hello kitty glasses! Dam.. should have bought them!!!!!
And then, the strangest thing happened!
When we came back to the room the first time, Ace took off his jacket and left his watch on the TV console.. and then when we went out the second time, he did not wear the watch but when we came back to the room, the watch just mysteriously disappeared! No matter how we searched, we just could NOT find the watch at all! Ace was so upset and cried.. I told him we will search again tomorrow and let's focus on enjoying our last night in the hotel... and he was better after he watched the cartoon...
Meanwhile, Max went for a massage while me and Ace entertained ourselves in the room.. while in the toilet.. I found this! Miracle oil! hahahaha.. to be used 30 min before intercourse.. wahahahahaah...
There is a date there hor.. and I wonder hor if it is the production date or EXPIRY DATE! Wahahaha. you dare to use or not? But is chargable!
That is our tea:)
And all the biscuits tat we bought..
And our vegeterian snacks!
Since the very first day we arrived in China, Ace has clamoured for a bath together with me and Max.. but because we were always back so late, we always told him we would do it another day.. since this was our last night in the hotel.. I decided to grant his wish and we had fun playing in the bathtub:)
Must cover the important parts!:) wahahaha
After tat, Ace got started on his snacks and wang wang milk that we bought for him for supper.. but he is still gloomy as we still COULD NOT find his watch... Let's hope we have better luck the next day when the sun shines in and the room is bright...
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