Hangzhou/Shanghai 9/21/2007 Cruise on West Lake, Dragon Well Tea Plantation, Lingyin Temple, train to Shanghai, Shanghai New Century Hotel

Breakfast at our hotel.  Check out.  Our guide for the day is Nancy.  Hangzhou is one of China's premier tourist destinations.  An inspiration for poets and artists for centuries.  Besides silk, the region is also a major producer of tea.

First on the schedule is a cruise on West Lake said to have been created from a pearl dropped by a phoenix and a dragon.  Proclaimed by the Chinese as the landscape composed by a painter.  It's beautiful.  We walk around first before getting on our boat for the cruise.

Our boat

There are other cruise boats in this picture

Then we go to the Dragon Well Tea Plantation where the legendary Longing green tea is picked and processed by hand.  The first picked tea leaves of the new harvest were once reserved solely for the Emperor and transported to him via the Grand Canal.  We learned about harvesting as well as the paper way to brew this tea.  The Chinese Tea Ceremony is demonstrated and we sample the tea.  I do buy quite a bit of tea!  I think we have lunch after this but ??

Tea growing

In the afternoon we tour the 1,700 year old Lingyin Temple, one of China's most famous monasteries. Originally constructed in 326 A.D. the present structures reflect their restoration during the Qing Dynasty.  The temple once housed up to 3,000 monks within its 18 pavilions and 75 temple halls.  Another sacred site here is The Peak That Flew From Afar aptly named because it resembles a Holy Mountain in India that was thought to have been transported to this spot.

Ticket

The Peak That Flew From Afar

Lingyin Temple

Then we travel by train to Shanghai.  We will stay at the Shanghai New Century Hotel.  We stay here for 3 nights.  We are close to the famous Bund and Nanjing Road.  Our guide in Shanghai is Lulu.  I think we have dinner at the hotel.