Sunday; The Day of Rest

Click here for today's pictures.

Today was very low key. We were up before 5am again and it was a good time for Shawn to attempt to upload his pics, which he has been unsuccessful in doing so far. Word of advice to anyone travelling to China soon: Don't use Kodakgallery.com as your upload site if you can help it. Shawn has been trying for 2 days to get his pictures to upload and the connection here is so slow, it bombs every time. I am using Photobucket and have not had a single problem yet (knock on wood).

Breakfast is on the hotel's 7^th floor, which has a panoramic view of the lake. Unfortunately, the air quality is so bad here, it is impossible to see across the street to the lake, let alone the lake itself. It is really too bad because it is a gorgeous body of water surrounded by parks and mountains…but you wouldn't know it.

After breakfast, Celine took us across to the lake and we walked for about 2 hours, barely scratching a dent in what there is to see of the lake. We are the object of a lot of stares since we are the few westerners in Hangzhou, but more so because I was wearing a short sleeved shirt, which is not done here. We saw several people motion to their arms and point at us, so I think I'll be packing away my short sleeved shirts for Guangzhou. Also a good word of note for those preparing to travel! Not one single person in Hangzhou is without at least one layer, if not several. Today wasn't warm, but even so, Celine was wearing a heavy turtleneck sweater and a thick leather jacket. Beijing was this way too, but since the tourist population is so much higher, we probably wouldn't have had a single issue. However, I saw a woman on TV with a short sleeved shirt, so maybe it's just a regional thing or they think I'm crazy for wearing s/s in this weather. I may never know.

One thing about Hangzhou, which is in direct contradiction to my comments about Beijing is that there are a lot of little girls, maybe even more than boys. We also saw many, many families with multiple children and several sets of twins. Celine said that many families in Hangzhou can afford the fines or are not fined at all. She also said that views are changing about the place a woman plays in the family, meaning they can keep their daughters without the associated social implications. She didn't say much more. I don't think she can since she is associated with the agency, but it made me wonder how much of the one child policy is still enforced and if it applies to everyone, everywhere. I also saw a boy with a limb difference and a girl with a hearing aid, so it lends hope that not all special needs children are abandoned.

By the lake, we stopped at a food vendor and I tried sticky rice stuffed with pork and wrapped in a leaf of some kind and then steamed. It is a popular food during the Dragon Boat Festival in May, and families make them with many kinds of fillings for the celebration. It was only 5 Yuan, which is less than a dollar and was very filling and delicious. I hope to find them again tomorrow as it made an excellent mid-morning snack.

We also went into an art museum that houses sketches, paintings, and calligraphy from local artists. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and what's better is that it was free to enter. On the way to the second floor, we purchased several books highlighting pieces of artwork, but I soon realized that I bought one too few and went back to buy another that I had admired. I reached to pick it up, but realized that someone else was paying for it. I started an international incident as the pushy American who was touching someone else's possessions and Celine had to quickly come over and diffuse the situation. I felt horrible, but it was a learning experience: wait to touch until given the OK by the shop owner.

We headed back and stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few items. I'm not exactly sure why we went today rather than after receiving Ian, but we came out with some crackers popular with the babies that look like round crackers, probably similar in consistency to arrowroot cookies, some animal cracker type things in the shape of Winnie the Pooh & Friends, and some apple juice. We also couldn't pass up some Cucumber flavored Lay's chips. We later discovered that they aren't very good, at least to our palates, but we couldn't resist.

On the way back to the hotel, an elderly woman stopped Celine and told her to tell us that we appear to be very healthy and thanked us for coming so far to see Hangzhou. We did not explain why we are here, since we figure we'll be doing a lot of that soon. She wished us great longevity and crossed the street. It was so nice and she didn't even have an agenda, which I was waiting for.

We parted ways with Celine for the day at about 2pm and were glad to have the rest of the day to relax. We headed down to one of the hotel's many restaurants and chose 3 dishes from their menu, a Cantonese chicken/pepper dish, steamed garlic broccoli, and vegetable filled dumplings. It was a lot of food and set us back a whopping 15 bucks.

We are back at the room now doing some journal writing and fighting the internet speed again. I went through Ian's bag and set aside everything with short sleeves. I now know that it would be an instant invitation for the local older women to tisk tisk how he is dressed…and it may not be warm enough anyway. We expected it to be about 10-15 degrees warmer here than it is. We'll definitely have some shopping to do once he's with us. At this point, we don't even know if what we purchased will fit anyway.

Tomorrow, we head out to Lingyin Si Buddhist Temple and a Longjing Tea Plantation. It will be the last childless day of our lives! Heaven help us!

Thank you to everyone who is impatiently awaiting the arrival of Ian. I know the last several days has all been filler leading up to that important day. Good things come to those who wait!