We spent quite a bit of time in Hangzhou, and it was a very pleasant area, but I didn't take quite as many pictures there, and as I write this, I'm thinking that I probably won't write so much about Hangzhou, but just let most of the pictures stand on their own. We'll see how that goes, though.

We took the bus from Shanghai to Hangzhou, stopping for "dim sum" on the way (a place that just sold those rice-wrapped-in-leaves things.. with pork, bean paste, and something else I don't remember... the pork was decent... I had this a couple times in China, and the main difference I noticed from the American version was that in China the rice is much stickier... it required real effort to separate with chopsticks.. in this case, we just ate it with our hands like a sandwich, and perhaps that's the way it's intended to be eaten and the reason for the stickiness... I'm not sure). We stayed at the five-star Zhejiang International Hotel, definitely the nicest of the three hotels we inhabited during our trip (the other two were three-star). The main improvement of this hotel (and this is a significant improvement, for which we were very grateful) was that it had drinkable water. At the previous hotels, we had to use bottled water or boiled water (which we had to boil ourselves) to drink or brush our teeth. But here there was actually a separate tap labeled "drinking water." It was very nice.

The two main touristy activities we engaged in were a visit to a tea plantation and a boat ride on the beautiful West Lake. We also voted to go to a show of acrobatics and dancers after being informed that there would also be kung fu. A good deal of time was spent shopping in Hangzhou, which was a bit more pleasant than markets we had visited in Shanghai and Beijing since there weren't thick crowds of people constantly trying to sell us fake watches. You could actually walk comfortably in the markets of Hangzhou (although I did get hit by a bike at one point......). Hangzhou was still a very crowded city, it just wasn't quite as bad as Beijing or Shanghai. I believe Ping said that it is more expensive to live in Hangzhou (due to the beauty of the West Lake area, I think... she compared it to Beverly Hills, adding that the people had a reputation for being a bit snobby); perhaps that is the reason for the seemingly smaller population.

Most of my souvenirs came from Hangzhou. There were two primary markets: a daytime market that specialized in silk, and a nighttime market that specialized in various other things (from cheap suitcases to musical instruments). All of my clothing came from the silk market (it was pretty strange to be buying shirts that were large and extra-large.. and fit me!), and there were also two stores there that carried very cheap CDs and DVDs. We must have left with about half their inventory. The nighttime market is where I acquired my scrolls and incense.

Todd had a prescheduled arrangement to leave early, so I got to take his place in Ryan Moss' room and get some decent sleep for my last two nights in China, without bothering Jameson and Mike Kenny (although Todd was certainly missed... it's not like I was eagerly anticipating his departure so I could get the room).