West Lake

Minimal jet lag had me awake at 4am. After breakfast, I met the rest of my group: Carl & Tenille, a young couple from Australia and Jason & Cindia, from Texas and Taiwan respectively. Along with myself, Doug, and Joanne (who'd join us the next day) it would be the 7 of us.

The day's activities were at West Lake, a very popular tourist attraction in China, in the city of Hangzhou. To get there, we'd need to take the train from Shanghai's South Station. The train station was massive and an example of the infrastructure needed to support this many people. It was a nice modern train and we had assigned seats (unlike those passengers that had to stand up). A teenager next to me had a McDonalds Egg McMuffin with hash browns and coffee identical to those back home. Wonder where she got that since I didn't see any in the train station.

A private van picked us up at the airport and brought us to the National Tea Museum. It was stifling hot at this point, but the grounds were nice and manicured. Unfortunately, it was Monday and the museum was closed on Mondays.

Nonetheless, foliage abound and mountains nearby made for good picture taking. This was also the group's first attempt at a 'jumping' photo (have to get a copy from Doug) with more sure to follow.

Many of these tea plantations are family owned going back generations. Doug knew a friend of a friend whose family owned a plantation specifically specializing in green tea (different from Japanese green tea). We drove to their home in the hills for a home-cooked lunch. Good stuff. Pics below.

Before we left, we saw tea weighed and put into canisters for sale.

We drove back to West Lake and rented bicycles from the public rental stands. This concept actually isn't throughout China (yet) but it's been so successful in Hangzhou that other parts of China may get it. Similar systems are popular in Paris and ironically, Minneapolis just got such a system installed this summer. The weather cooled a little so the bike ride around the lake was comfortable. Pics from stops below.

The night ended with a plane ride to Guilin and a late night arrival at our hotel. Tomorrow: it's hiking through the Longji Rice Terraces.