This weekend we traveled north to Hangzhou, about a 2 hour bus ride from Yiwu (but at 6:20am this seems much longer). This city is the capital of the Zhejiang Province in which we are spending the majority of our time. This is also the site of Central College’s ‘home’ campus in China, and we got to experience the campus life while we were there.
We started the day walking the ‘Broken Bridge,’ which would take us to a Daoist Temple that lay at the top of a giant hill. Once we reached the summit we explored the temple and learned some history of the Dao teachings. Later that afternoon we switched subjects and went to a Buddhist Temple which was beautifully landscaped with ponds and waterfalls. So many statues and so much history; one room held a display of the 500 faces of Buddha! In both temples there were individuals and families worshipping the statues that were present, and I was very surprised by this, because in China, we were told (and it is known) that you keep to your self when it comes to religion and beliefs...interesting.
Sunday we spent most of the day at Guo’s Villa, a garden surrounding a central lake in the area. The weather was perfect for this, and we were simply able to stroll around and enjoy the scenery. There were many people out and about, and even a wedding that seemed to be taking place in the garden. On our way out, behold, a Starbucks! You can’t go anywhere these days without finding one of those around. We ended the afternoon by strolling up and down ‘Traditional Street,’ a road full of shops and vendors looking to sell their goods. This area, as it is called, is where Hangzhou originated, and this area was preserved to keep the traditional look of the town.
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