Catching up with old friends

Recently Chris and I went back to Shanghai to catch up with old friends. Chris is on holiday during the finals period between semesters, so we had a couple weeks off. Some of our teenagers from the KG group last year were graduating, and the timing worked out perfectly for us to go to their graduation! It was so wonderful to be able to share such a momentous day with them. I was also able to spend some time with my girls' small group that I led last year, and it was great to be able to see how the girls have grown, and to be able to mutually encourage each other.

Living in Shanghai is expensive! We didn't realize how much until we went to visit! Transportation, especially, is very expensive, especially as we had to take a taxi to the subway from where we were staying in Pudong with our friends. Additionally, there is so much good shopping and there are so many good Western restaurants that we spent more than we originally intended to. Fortunately, living in Xiamen is much cheaper and we're going to be frugal for the next few weeks =). It was worth it though, for real burgers, and the dark chocolate granita at Whisk...Mmmm!

Our friend Matt, who teaches at Xiamen U with us, also joined us, so we had fun exploring Shanghai with him and for the first time went to the Shanghai Museum! You know, going to museums isn't really something you do when you live IN the city, but now that we were there as tourists, we enjoyed it! Admission was free, and they had some extensive collections of ancient coins, paintings, etc...

After we spent some time in Shanghai, we took the fast train to Hangzhou. It was Matt's first time, and the first time Chris and I experienced nice weather there =). The West Lake is just exquisite. In spite of being one of China's prime tourist attractions, it is surprisingly un-Disneyfied. The classical architecture has been well preserved, and the grounds and gardens are well-kept. They should be - the gardens in Hangzhou have been being cultivated for a thousand years! The two causeways that you can walk to cross the lake and take in the sights were built 900 to 1200 years ago, by famous poet-governers of the Tang and Song dynasties. Everything is clean, and it's refreshing to be in China and be able to walk in the shade of towering bamboo, spruce and pine trees, and enjoy the sight of lotuses swaying in the breeze. Actually the lotuses really caught my eye this time, as it is early summer and they are just starting to bloom.

We also had the opportunity to go a little off the beaten track and hike through some of the tea fields just south of the West Lake. The low rows of tea bushes combing the valleys and hillsides were some of the loveliest natural sights we have seen in China. This is where the famous West Lake Longjing Tea is produced, a light green tea that is hand-cured in large heated woks. It was so quiet in these tea fields that we couldn't hear any sounds except for the crunch of our own footsteps in the dry leaves, the crickets chirping and the sound of songbirds. It was pretty hard to believe that we were only minutes away from the popular West Lake area. The path also took us through tea villages nestled in the hills. These groups of houses, built in the traditional Hangzhou style with whitewashed walls, latticed windows and black tile roofs, were such a far cry from the modern metropolis that Chris and I have come to know as China. The owners of family-run teahouses that dotted our route continually came out to ask us in for a cup of tea. Although we politely declined this time, it would be lovely to relax by the side of the road, take in the scenery, and enjoy the harvest of the tea fields.

I'm just about finished an article on Fujianese tea ceremony, popular in Xiamen, and I'm going to write one on on the Hangzhou tea fields soon. Stay tuned!