Hangzhou Favorites

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Favorite thing: In the cold war period the west media often call China BAMBOO SCREEN. So,China is the homeland of bamboo on the world. And Hangzhou is the first land of bamboo in China.
This garden is at suburb of Hangzhou. They say it is the only museum on the world. You can see all kind of bamboo and great many fine arts and crafts made of bamboo from China and other countries.

Favorite thing: Watching fish in the flowery stream is one of the top ten sights of the West Lake.

The stream from Huajiashan Hill joins the West Lake here. The park is divided into seven parts. Red Carp Pond is one of which.

Favorite thing: There is a chinese saying that "there is a temple in every hill. And in the case of Lingyin temple, the hill is in the temple compound.

Various Chinese Emperors visited this temple including Qian Long.

Favorite thing: The Hua Gang Park (Flower Harbor Park) was a small private garden built and owned by Lu Yunsheng.

Flower Harbor became a recreation resort for viewing goldfishes.

In the park there are four sections, the Peony Yard, the Red Fish Pool, the Thick Forest Zone and the New Flower Harbor.

Favorite thing: This is the most heavy snow in 6 years of Hangzhou!! Really cool~really cold...

Fondest memory: More and more pieces of snow flying in the sky.I felt cold but happy~~My friend and I ran in the wind.We laughed in the white flowers.

Favorite thing: Hangzhou city's municipal website, not quite as sterile as most in China, has a good city tourist map and also a map of Greater Hangzhou.
In true "let's not think this thing out completely" style, the city tourist map is let down by having everything completely translated into English, which means that it cannot be used to show to most taxi-drivers or even passers-by!
The map shows road names and the ten great "sights" of Hangzhou, but no other useful places, so has limited value "in the field". A good initiative though.
The map of Greater Hangzhou is actually extremely useful if used in combination with more detailed maps.

Favorite thing: The art of tea leaves frying. Becareful it is real hot. They say that this guy has got "iron sand palm" to withstand such heat. The oil from the leaves are used to fry the leaves thus giving a flavour to the green tea leaves.

Fondest memory: Inside a gigantic swastika-shaped building at Lingyin Si, there reside many golden sculptures like the one you see here, which shows a man holding a lotus flower... Notice the woodwork of the window also echoes the swastika motif... In Buddhism, the swastika can represent resignation and has connotations of good fortune...