We stopped at a lovely little tea house after the YuQuan temple site, and tried some Dragon Tea, for which Hangzhou is famous. Would you like to try some? If you like green tea you would love this!
Very picturesque entrance to the tea house...
Sitting out back with our dragon tea was very pleasant. There were a few swings and things for the kids to play with, and Sophie found a toy which she enjoyed.
The back courtyard of the teahouse.
Another little girl who was playing there.
There was a strange little boat on rails that the boys pushed for the smaller kids. The little kids LOVED it!
A wall separating the different tea house courtyards.
We saw some plants with huge leaves, so we had to get a bit goofy!
Jack takes a quick break. It is so nice today; it rained last night and it is much cooler today - very pleasant outside.
Sophie got tired of using her little legs so Peter offered a ride.
Sue and Jack having a little break.
We found a beautiful bamboo forest that we will have to back and explore. Our internet install is today so we have to go back before we can explore too much!
Sue had to go to the restroom, and told Peter to hold everything. So he's holding all of the bags plus Jack!
Aah, the we love the beauties of China!
... and the not so beautiful parts of China, too!
We happened upon a teenager (17 or so) and his Dad, and the Dad was reluctantly kicking the soccer ball around with his son. Peter and Jack came onto this grassy patch and the Dad was happy to have a rest!
Gratuitous flower shot...
Sue and Sophie wait for the boys to finish playing soccer.
Jack was done playing so he wanted me to take this blurred shot of him running up the stairs, making him look fast, which he is! ;)
... and here the kids are with their friend who supplied his feet and the soccer ball!
We could have stayed at the gardens all day and possibly longer. It's a definitely a place we all want to go back to!
We hurried back into town to have a quick lunch, and meet the internet provider for our apartment. We happened to see this guy going down the road. No wonder there are no fat Chinese!
We found these delicious grapes on the street. I bought 1/2 kilo for about 5 quai. After our sale was done, a Chinese woman came up and asked how much, and she told the customer 3 1/2 quai! Arrgh! I know it's only a 20 cent difference, but I'll be able to bargain better next time! She is weighing my grapes with a little stick with marks on it and a weight on one end. Looks very accurate. :)
I'm very happy to announce that we have internet in one of the apartments now! It cost about $215 for the whole year, including equipment which I was very happy with! I need to go out tonight to find a router so we can share the connection amongst our 3 computers and both apartments without having to be wired. I don't think the word "router" is in my dictionary, so I guess it's back to pointing! On the next block over, there is a huge electronics district which has everything under the sun. Back to bargaining!
3 comments:
I wanted to let you know how much
I'm enjoying sharing your daily
living experiences in China.
The pictures that you post are
great. A Fellow Teacher in US.
Hi there - Catherine here - back from the wilds of Northwestern BC. Sounds like you're still having quite the adventure over there. Dan set my mom up with a link to the blog which I'm sure she'll enjoy as much as we are.
Hurray for internet!
Hello, thank you for sharing your daily experiences in China. I used to work in China for three years and really enjoyed my time there.
The name of the tea is Dragon Well (Long Jing). It is named after the Dragon Well Village where the tea is grown and harvested. There is also a well where the villagers get water to make tea...
I got a chuckled out of your account of getting quoted a higher price than a local. Hang in there. After some months in China, one of the high lights of my life there when I was quoted a price and then another western person showed up and was quoted a higher price. That was my validation that my Chinese was acceptable.
Trieu
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