A "warm" weekend in Hangzhou

大家好！（Hello Everyone）

This weekend my classmates and I were extremely lucky to change the scenery a bit and visit another beautiful city called Hangzhou,China. After waking up at 4:30 am, I was excited to see some of the many wonders of the cultural metropolis, Hangzhou. I started my day with an "only in China" moment after a guy sped out of McDonald's in his Moped.  After arriving at the 上海虹桥火车站（Shanghai Hong Qiao Railway Station) and attracting many curious eyes due to our foreign looks and stylish blue CIEE tee-shirts and white hats, we were finally ready for our two hour train ride to Hangzhou. I somehow forgot about the severity of China's heat and was soon reminded of it as I exited the train. From then on, we had a fast paced, fun packed day in Hangzhou. Our lovely tour guide Lilly told us about three very touching legends of Hangzhou, which were all love stories involving three bridges along the 西湖（West Lake).

After our calming boat tour, we were welcomed by the Laughing Buddha and 飞来峰 （Feilai Peak) and were able to indulge in more beauty at the 灵隐寺（Ling Yin Temple），which proves a great deal of information on the aspects of Chinese Buddhism and is also the home of over 3000 figures of Buddhists deities. Pretty great right? Well it gets better!

We also were finally able to drift away from our favorite place, Global Harbor, and do some shopping in shops located on the 清河坊街（ Qinghefang Ancient Street), which was filled with Hangzhou's famous tea, silk, and stinky tofu to top it all. 

From then, we ended our night out in Hangzhou with an absolutely amazing show staged entirely on the West Lake that featured stories based on Hangzhou legends. The director Mr Zhang Yimou did an outstanding job with bringing the legends of Hangzhou to life not only with props and lights, but also with hundreds of dancers, actors and singers. I'm still pretty shook by the ballerinas ability to dance on pointe on a water filled stage. 

After finally getting to the hotel and settling in, the girls on the trip decided to revamp our night with a face mask party. We kinda scared a few guests as we went down to the lobby to order some late night grub, whooops.

Today, we were all awoken by a call from Lilly telling us to get ready for an exciting day at 8:30 am. Before heading to the Workmanship Demonstration Pavilion, where we painted our personal umbrellas, some of us ate tasty Chinese breakfast. I thought my eight pieces of watermelon were pretty good, but back to the important stuff. It was a really cool to see on-site demonstrations of traditional Chinese craft and even make some of our own, as many of my classmates are teenage Picasso's.

Like everyday we've had any China, our weekend trip to Hangzhou allowed us to get a glimpse of the wonders of Chinese culture. I'm extremely excited to see what the next two weeks will bring!

-Samaia Hill