Jeff in China: Days 21 and 22

This weekend our USAC group went to visit the city of Hangzhou. Hangzhou is rated one of the most livable cities in China, and is about 3 hours by bus from Shanghai. In this posting I will tell you a little about life here in China, and then about the two sites in Hangzhou we visited. First, you can find out more about Hangzhou from the China Travel Guide and from Wikipedia. On the ride to Hangzhou we traveled on a highway equivalent to our interstate highways. Except for the signs being in Chinese, you wouldn't know the difference between the their interstate highways and ours.

Hangzhou is a moderately sized city in China, and has a population of approximately 3.9 million. As we drive into the city, you see from the photo that it is a modern city with many high rise buildings, beautiful landscaping in the streets, and most streets had separate lanes for the bikes. One of the first buildings we passed was one that had the Gucci, Hermes, Cartier, etc stores. A nice and unusual feature they had at many intersections were canopies on the bike lanes. So when it is raining and the bikers are stopped, they are protected from the rain. Also, their traffic lights had additional features that showed when the red and green lights were about to change. The traffic signals also told bikes when to go and stop, not only the cars.

China is not a Christian country, so it does not treat Sunday as a special day. Most businesses and construction sites are working on Sunday. In fact, most businesses work a 7 day week. You will find banks open 7 days a week, and many construction projects are going on 7 days a week. The people in most businesses work a 5 day week. In the small mom and pop shops, like around the University, they may work 7 days a week.

Typical street scene as we are entering Hangzhou

Canopies covering bike lanes at most intersections

They had these bike stands around town. Just swipe your card on the post and you can take a bike

Traffic signals showing that both the red and green are about to change

Street cleaner. Sidewalks were always attended to and cleaned

Traffic Signals showed bike directions

Barber Poles are everywhere, even if they are purple.

This picture was taken at 7:00 AM Sunday morning, showing crews working at this time

The Ling Yin Budhhist Temple

Our first tourist stop was at the Ling Yin Temple. This link tells you all about it. On the walkway to the temple, there were many carvings in the rocks and caves of various Budda figures. You will see some of these photos.

Along the walkway to the temple, there were many carvings of Buddhist religious characters in the rocks

There are many stone carvings along the path to the Temple.

Most Chinese are not devout Buddhists, but they will often make a prayer to him if they are seeking a favor. For example, good health for a loved one, good luck on an exam, help in finding a marriage partner, etc.