West Lake -- Hang Zhou 1

We stayed at an family apartment near Zhe Jiang University - Yu Quan District when we were in Hang Zhou. The photo above was taken near where we live. It looks a bit rural but indeed it is in the city. I think it is nice that one could find such a laze and quiet place with the lively sound of water and which is free from city pollution but still has convient traffic. It just like a natural rest home^.^.



Hang Zhou is famous as a scenic tourist city. As saying goes:"In heaven there is paradise, and on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou." People always associate Hangzhou with the West Lake. So we headed to the West Lake as soon as we settled down. It was half-hour's walk away from where we live. Since friend and I both are car-sick, we decided just to walk there and meanwhile there must be something nice to see in the way.

We started out at noon. That day was chilly and since it was neither weekend nor holiday, we met few people all way to the West Lake. The cloudy weather did not make us feel gloomy but added to a quiet and peace atmosphere--it was like being shawdowing by big trees- with a leisure mood, I preserved my happiness to myself. It was still in early spring, peach was blossoming but not at their best time. I took this picture when crossing a bridge, wondering whether scenary seen by the character in Lao Yuanming's story would be more beautiful or not?

和菲从住处出发的时候已经是中午十二点了，那天有点冷，不是周末也不是假期，一路走着都没见到什么人，多云的天气并不显得阴沉，反倒添加了一种静谧的感觉，就好像是被大树的阴凉庇护着，所以心情更悠然，有种独乐乐的自得。还是早春，桃花渐渐开放，但还不是最美的时候。上了桥就看到了这幅图像，我想，当年陶渊明笔下的人物遇到的景象是不是有类似的感觉，湖的转角会不会就是那片世外桃源？

And...hmmm, i really cannot recall who he was...SuShi?

And...argh...my photogragh skill sucks! :( It is in west lake and that is Leifeng Pagoda. It was said that once upon a time, there was a white snake who wanted to pay a debt of gratitude to a man who saved its life. It changed into a beautiful wman and married that man and gave birth to a baby. Then the white snake was prisoned into this pagoda by a monk. Why? The monk said because hobgoblin and humanbeing was forbidden to be together and hobgoblin was evil and should be destoried. But indeed, the monk was doing presonal revange because the snake had stolen and eaten his pills which were given by celestial being as a praise to help him become accomplished Buddhist monk(I know my english sucks too...) Lei Feng Pagoda represtents
the oppression towards women and it collapsed in Sep. 25th 1924. The Pagoda we see today was newly built in 2002. "Leipeng Pagoda at Sunset" is one of the ten sights of the west lake and hmm since it was cloudy, we didnt enjoy it.

We spent a total four hours to give a whole walk around west lake...was really tiring!!!(we amazd at ourself when we were back and looked at the map, finding we had such a huge circle walk haha) and didnt take any nice photos due to the bad weather and most was because it was a nice place and i enjoyed a lot and just forgot to take any photo.