China Part II – October 29, 2017

Hello Everyone…

Our time so far has been so memorable words do not do it justice. Many occasional visits to various street stands where we witness some amazing little treats. One recent is a fruit (I can’t tell you which one) is grown in a mold so that when picked, its shaped like a Buddha. Many of the other tour mates purchased and said they tasted really good.

Day 5 of our tour brought us to Wuxi, one of the oldest cities in China with a history of more than 3,000 years. Our first stop was at one of the largest fresh water pearl farms in the country. Interestingly, China has become the worlds leader in export of pearls. They have accomplished this by manufacturing the cultivation of pearls. What is not worthy of a necklace or bracelet, is ground for tea for internal health or face creams. China produces over 90% of pearl necklaces globally around 1600 tons per year. 

Our next stop was the Lingshan Grand Buddha. This bronzed Grand Buddha, situated on the side of the Lingshan mountain, measures a staggering 288 feet high and weighs in at just over 700 tons and is clear for miles around. We climbed the steps making our way to the base where it’s stated that if you rub the feet of the GB, it brings good luck and fortune to you and your family. Needless to say, we rubbed vigorously!!! 😉  Our completion of this day was an automated, music-accompanied show of a large Lotus flower statue that when opened, revealed a smaller version of the Grand Buddha. 

Day 6 began with our arrival in Hangzhou, described by Marco Polo as “The most beautiful and magnificent city in the world.”  Hangzhou is the capital of China’s Zhejiang province. Its highlight is its West Lake, celebrated by poets and artists since the 9th century and encompasses man-made islands, temples, pavilions, arched bridges and gardens. West Lake is truly magnificent and considered the romance city of China. Culturally, it is believed that it also produces China’s most beautiful women so if one is fortunate to marry a woman from West Lake, he is socially more worshipped. Upon entry, we walked by massive Lotus gardens, blooms are in the spring and one could imagine what this would look like when in bloom. We took a boat ride around the Lake and were ourselves in awe of its beauty. Upon completion of this day we witnessed, “Enduring Memories of Hangzhou,” a jaw-dropping performance by approximately 240 performers. What is so unique about this is the fact that the stage on the lake is approximately 3cm below water level so what we witness is the visual aspect of all the performers walking on water itself. Add to this the light, music and accompanied laser show, and the Lake acts as a perfect reflective mirror so it was difficult to take our eyes off the performance to take many photos. The production was created by acclaimed Zhang Yimou, who also directed the 2008 Summer Olympic Games’ opening ceremony. Truly a spectacular feat. We are so fortunate with the weather we’ve had and the time of year we’re in. All of this romanticism of descriptive beauty is solely based from our experience but we are reminded that during the summer months, they face temperatures of 40-45 degrees with high humidity and the winter months (although minimal snow) are cold, wet and damp so our privilege and luck of experiencing this is something we are truly grateful for.

Day 7 began with a visit to the Dragon Well Tea Plantation. We learned about the fascinating process of picking tea, the fermenting process of certain teas and all that’s comprised of that. Although a few teas are produced here, the focus was on their renowned Green Tea. As we all know, green tea has high antioxidant properties that are truly beneficial. To demonstrate this, they poured some white rice into a glass followed by iodine. You can imagine the black, rather disgusting look that creates. They mixed regular water to display that muddied effect then dropped a small pinch of the green tea leaves and we were left amazed by the effects. It was like watching an OxiClean commercial live;)  So we didn’t buy any pearls but we did purchase some authentic green tea which we look forward to drinking.

After lunch we drove back to the Shanghai airport and took an 800km flight to the city of Yichang which is the starting point of our Yangtze River Cruise. We boarded the President 7 cruise ship late last night and will begin our next segment of adventure. 

A couple of things to highlight here. China has a population of 1.3 billion people. What we notice is that although smog is definitely a problem, the busyness that one would expect is simply just not there. One could literally die on a trip to a mall in the GTA either by traffic or being trampled by people and yet in every city we’ve visited, it’s a country that is not based on chaos, but an underlying respect. Not once have we been pushed or shoved nor do they do that to each other. It’s just everyone going about their business without the underlying aggression that is often witnessed throughout North America. No one is allowed to own a gun here and anyone caught breaking that law is met with more severe punishment of incarceration. So for us, where opinions may be formed based on upbringing of what a communist country must consist of, there is no graffiti, little to no homelessness and extremely low crime. Their unemployment rate falls below 4% for the entire country as anyone can work. They can register for a job picking up garbage or whatever so I highlight this as something to think about given our current (and past) North American political climate.

The other thing to share is that China is becoming more westernized with the basic toilet. Certainly an appreciation for the fact that we’re men and can stand to pee as we’ve openly giggled at the stories that the ladies on the tour have had to endure during stops at service stations along the route. All of our hotels have been amazing but one truly has to appreciate the fact that during these stops, ladies literally have to squat to pee so they’re slowly changing to more advanced methods 😉

As we venture into our next few days along our Yangtze River Cruise, we will write again with the next segment of our privileged adventure.

Buddha Fruit