China trip Pt 15: Westlake Day Tour (Hangzhou)

When asked what is the story of West Lake by a friend, I really did not know how to answer her.. So in the end, I told her that it is just a very very beautiful and big lake in Hangzhou that is so beautiful it has inspired lots of poetry and literature.. in fact, many of the poems I have learnt and the stories I have read about land of plum blossoms etc were all inspired by Xi Hu!:) Even the famous Legends of The White Snake were written against the backdrop of Xi Hu... and that how the duan qiao (where they met) and Lei Feng Ta (where she was imprisoned) got even more famous..

Through Godma Karen, we signed up for a full day tour of West Lake and we had to wake real early to have breakfast. Because it was a large group, instead of picking us up, we had to take a cab there.. (the tour guide said to walk there and I am glad we took a cab cos if walk have to walk 20 minutes at least and it is dam cold early in the morning even though the tour guide said it is JUST a 10 min walk...)

Our good friend wanted to watch cartoon and did not want to sleep lor.. so when he woke up, he was all groggy. After he brushed his teeth and changed, he went back to bed again.. hahahahahahah:)

Breakfast at Four Season's Cafe.. I really like their logo.. so sweet...

We found lots of interesting food we have never seen before... pumpkin cake, rice with fruit (yew...) and walnut bread... (I loved it) and even ice cream! hahahahaha.. Too bad we din have time for ice cream...

I also discovered that they offered tao hway with the condiments to make the salty dao hway tat we ate in Shanghai. I am so going to make this when we go back to Dubai:) Cos it is easy.  Just steam silkin toufu.. scoop into the bowl, add soy sauce and add seaweed and some scallions;)

Then there is another Top Scholar cake.. everything here seems to be named top scholar something.. it is just some sort glutinous rice flour with sugar steamed...

Ace was happy just to eat two cakes, one kueh and a banana.. Heng got banana cos everything else I asked him to eat, he shook his head at it.. and I din even know if we will find proper lunch today.. so I wanted him to have a fuller breakfast...

And he is super happy too;)

Now that Ace is full, we are off to meet our tour guide..  as we were early and the tour guide was waiting for some other people, we sat down to rest and Ace and Max started to play their build muscle game.. Ace started doing push ups and posing...

After all the working out and swimming ah.. I realized tat my son is starting to develop muscles.. I was just telling Max sometimes when Ace takes off his shirt and walks around in his underwear, I stare at his body and think.. "Wah, 7 years old got muscle.. he is going to be a hunk when he grows up!!!" Hahahha

We initially wanted to have the effect of Ace looking like he has super big hands and fists but failed cos Max's shoulder is too big it can't be hidden:)

Family photo...

This is Max and Ace's current favourite activity.. Ace claims it gives him energy... AND after a few days of doing that, you can see rippling muscles on my boy! hahahahahahahah...

After a while we all squeezed into this mini van (and some people even had to stand!!)  I hope this is not our transport for the rest of the day... We later changed to a bigger bus and I found out tat the busses would drop us off and go pick up another group of people while we are at our activity.. and tat is why the tours are so cheap cos the same bus is shared by a few groups...

Anyway, they brought us to a certain part of West Lake.

The tour guide did a roll call based on where you are from.. We are the only foreigners in the group..everyone else is from some other part of China.. wahahha.. and there were even two girls who had actually signed up for a trip to Suzhou who joined us by mistake:) hahaha

Max and Ace listening carefully to the rules laid down by the tour guide.. as this is a cheapo tour.. so wat the tour guide did is tat he will tell you wat to do and wat time to gather there and if not, he will ask you not to take pics and listen to him.. but trust me, if you dun take pics there and then, you got no more chance to do so later cos most  of the places we visited were touch and go!

This part of the West Lake isn the eastern park... It houses the Qian Wang Temple (that we did not have time to visit). Apparently it was built as a memorial to renowned King Qian Liu, the founder of the Wuyue Kingdom and profound contributor to the development of Zhejiang province. King Qian chose Hangzhou as the capital city of his empire. Here is a bronze statue of the king in martial dress. Apparently he was called Qian Liu cos his real mother gave him a way to an elderly couple with the surname Qian... And so he was called Qian Liu.. cos it sounds similar to "being left behind by Qian"... You could hear the tour guide's pride as he talked about this King cos I guess they think of him who contributed greatly to Hangzhou...

There were Rose Cotton plants all over and they were shedding cotton! The whole pond is white because of all the rose cotton floating on top! Ace wanted to pick some and bring home to paste on his scrapbook! hahahaha...

There is a jetty here that will take us to one of the man made islands in West Lake called Xiao Ying Zhou.. there, we can see on of the must see sights of the West Lake called Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon (三潭印月).

As this is a park, there were many people actually leisurely working out here.. this group is practicing swordplay...

I so love the weeping willows.. I wish we had them in Singapore and Dubai too...

Alas, it was a rather foggy day... HAI.. So everything out in the horizon looks foggy.. our Ah Q way of consoling ourselves is that it looks romantic this way...

Up the boat we go.. Ace was so upset that i was taking photos and not going on the boat as he was afraid the boat will leave without me.. wahaha:)

Took a picture of other people's boat to give you an idea of how our boat looked like...

That is the side view of that boat..

Goodbye Qian Wang temple;)

That is our tourguide, He.

Someone asked me if I saw people dancingi n the parks of China as it is common.. I did but it was the night before when I visited West Lake and it was too dark to take pics.. so this is the best pic I could ever take of them mass dancing from my boat:) hahaha

Far far away is the NEW Lei Feng Pagoda.. which is built by King Qian Chu during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.. The Lei Feng Pagoda is actually made famous by a famous chinese literature called The Story of The White Snake where she was supposedly imprisoned in Lei Feng Pagoda by some monk..

But of course, tat was just a fictitious story.. historically, story has it that the king was old (50 years old) and had no sons.. even though his wives were young. He constantly prayed for a son and consulted with a reowned monk... finally, his wish came true and his son was born.. But the son was sickly and often fell sick, so the king asked the trusted monk how he could improve the health of his son...

The monk said that for other people, just going gratitude prayers would be enough but as he was a King, it would be more befitting of him to do something bigger.. like building a pagoda (as there is a chinese saying that goes “To save one person's life is better than building a seven-story pagoda.” (where the pagoda analogy is used to amplify  and demonstrate how big an act of kindness and compassion it is as building a pagoda is considered a super big act of kindness and compassion in itself.)

So he built the Lei Feng Pagoda and tadah! his son miraculously recovered and so, everyone seem to see this pagoda in mystical light.. thinking that it will cure diseases or prevent miscarriage or bless and keep the family safe etc..

So anyway, Hangzhou is the land of silk right? So every family will rear their own silk worms.. one year, an old woman was thinking how to have a better harvest, she got inspired but he mystical pagoda and went to steal a brick from the pagoda, wrapped it up in a yellow cloth and put it together with all the silk worms.. that year, she had a bountiful harvest and everyone asked her what her secret was.. the secret was eventually a secret no more and for a safer family, better health or more money.. slowly, more and more people stole bricks from the pagoda..

Eventually, the pagoda collapsed on September 25, 1924.. The pagoda we see now is rebuilt much later... Too bad it is foggy and we can only at best see its silhouette..

Can you see the mystical Lei Feng Pagoda in the background?:P

This is called "若隐若现" effect..

And finally, our boat arrived at "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon.."

We are now on a man made island called 小瀛洲 Xiao Yingzhou.. It actually has a pavillion in the middle called Huxin Ting and four sort of roads leading to it.. so the map of it looks like the word "田". Anyway, this is supposed to be another sight to behold as it is an island within a lake and lake within an island...

During the Ming dynasty, they erect three small stony pagodas, called "Three Ponds". And that is the "three ponds mirroring the moon" we were supposed to see...

According to our tour guide's instructions, we had to walk across the island through this bridge through Hu Xin Ting to the other end to see the three pools.

This zig-zag bridge is called Jiu Qu Qiao, the Bridge of Nine Turnings, and is indeed supposed to stop evil spirits on the basis they can’t turn corners. A straight route would take 10 minutes to walk across the island.. because of the turns, you had to take 16 minutes instead to do the walk.. But it is nice to know after zig zagging your way through, you get to leave behind all things unpure or bad:)

There is a reason why Xi Hu is famous for its scenery.. beautiful!

Even more beautiful when there is a beautiful woman in the picture.. hahahhahaha

This is the Wan Zi pavilion below.. it is so named because of the strong Buddhist influences in Hangzhou.. The 卍字亭 is shaped like the word "卍" which signifies "all is at peace" in Buddhist teachings...

Finally, three ponds mirroring the moon!

According to the tour guide, during autumn if you visit in the evening, you can see 33 moons at one go! A candle is lit inside each pagoda on the night of the mid-Autumn festival, allowing shafts of light to shine through five round holes on the bottom levels of each one. So through the shafts there will be 5 x 3=15 "moons". As there will be 15 relfections, that makes 30 moons. and then there is the real moon and its reflection and so 32 moons and the final and very last moon... is the one in your heart.. (which in China is a euphism for one's "lover") :) hahaha

If you look very carefully.. all the three stone pagodas are in the background in this pic.. hhahahahah:)

Leifeng pagoda again.. I very buay kam wan canot get clear picture..

Me and the rose cotton trees:)

As you can tell, Max was holding the camera lah.. so I just pose lor:)

Whoever invented this is very clever lor! Seems like the stone ducks on this window decoration are floating on water!

That is west lake in the olden days..

Max took this one like tat cos the sun was in my eyes..

Bah.. stupid weather.. this was all we could get on the camera cso it was foggy...

You are offered a chance to wear those period customs and take pics with all the chinesey architecture.. too bad we din have time to do tat.. hahahaha:)

I have only seen wishing well.. here also got wishing STONE:) hahahaha

As we walked, we saw more flora and fauna... we found PURPLE clover!

And saw these mapel leaves again..

Max super happy cos it is his hobby to take pics of flowers:) hahahaha

More and more flowers but PLEASE dun ask me what they are called...

Then we saw a clover leaf patch again..

Once and again, Ace is looking out for a good luck four leave clover:)

Sitting own for a rest before heading to the jetty tat will have a boat take us to Yue Fei's tomb..

Finally I get to take a pic with the bamboos instead of Max:) hahahaha

Last boat ride of the day:)

That is the bai ti (causeway).. which is named after famous Chinese poet Bai Juyi.. it starts at the broken bridge which is so named cos during winter, when you look on the bridge, you will see a patch of white snow but it will look "broken" as it is still back in the middle... Too bad we wun get a chance to visit it.. so just take pics from afar lor:)

In between taking photos, I was listening to the tour guide's stories and advice.. he adviced us later to buy lotus powder (a local delight) to drink as it is good for health and told us which brands to buy...

I pity him cos most people, like me, were only listening half the time... most of the time they are talking or taking photos.. Ace for most part of the trip has just been playing with his magic ruler.. I think this type of "old people tour" must be quite boring for him....hahahhaha

Almost arriving at our destination and saw two men cleaning up the ponds.. what hard work it must be!:)

Dun forget to check the next post for more about Yue Fei's tomb... yet another place tat made me cry...

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