Hangzhou Trip
We did a three hours drive to Hangzhou (杭洲 ) with my host on the second day of October.
It was a very rainy day as I mentioned before. By the time we hit town (Thousand Island Lakes) for dinner, it was late in the evening.
Road traffic here do not voluntarily give pedestrians the peace of mind crossing the road, you pretty much cross intersections taking life in your own hands, That would be another story, for another time.
We went to a local restaurant famous for organic fish; these days “organic” is a “buzz word” in China as is anywhere else in the world.
As I observe – the fish stock keep in the establishment’s tanks are from the fish farms. There are dated photos with local dignitaries feeding fishes in the fish pen. So you can draw a conclusion that how “organic” the fish could be.
We have a nice fish dinner, with the whole fish prepared in soup, very meaty and tasty.
Smoking in public places, there are very officious looking notice everywhere in malls and restaurants banning smoking in public areas, but compliance of this notice seem depending entirely out of the good will from the general public, we requested twice in two days to change table in a eatery, because of some people near by chose to light up.
Regards for other people’s wellbeing seemed irrelevant to some people. And restaurant staffs are often reluctant to ask offending customers who lighted up to butt out.
Public littering, by and large, has greatly decreased, because of local municipality are keenly promoting littering is just not cool, once a while you do see some people throw their wrappers and fruit peels carelessly on the ground in rest areas along the highways.
Toilets are not as fragrant compared with years gone by, and are free at last.
I went to a local market for grocery, and was told the market vendors are the one who fared much better compared to regular wage earners or even the farmers who produced the food. Farmers are required to sell their produces to farming co-ops, and are often being squeezed out of the process, and they in my local friend’s opinion not given a fair stake.
Bargaining are tolerated by vendors, but you got to have a good command of the spoken language, or you just do not grasp what was said fast enough to take advantage of the fine art of bargaining.
We have a quick tour of the world famous West Lake (西湖), much has been written about and its beauty praised by many poets in China’s history. However I was told China has (I was told) about a quarter of the world’s population, and when there were a few thousand tourists descending on the lake area, the beauty of the lake loses its allure.
We walk by a tree with a lone squirrel climbing up and down the tree limb, with half a dozen tourists with cameras zooming on it. I was told squirrels are not native to Hangzhou, hence the curiosities.
Anyways, time to go home, so we drove the three hours or so back to Ningbo, if you close your eyes, and open them in a few minutes, you see those four lane highways with more than adequate road signs, LED panels asking people to drive with caution, not tail gating or cut in front of other people.
You would think you are in any other North America highways. I did. All the while feeling a moment of nation pride, until another erratic driver cut in front of you dangerously close to your bumper, then you cuss him!
Well, time flies, and I am ready to go back to work propecia pills 5mg.
Hangzhou Trip
We did a three hours drive to Hangzhou (杭洲 ) with my host on the second day of October.
It was a very rainy day as I mentioned before. By the time we hit town (Thousand Island Lakes) for dinner, it was late in the evening.
Road traffic here do not voluntarily give pedestrians the peace of mind crossing the road, you pretty much cross intersections taking life in your own hands, That would be another story, for another time.
We went to a local restaurant famous for organic fish; these days “organic” is a “buzz word” in China as is anywhere else in the world.
As I observe – the fish stock keep in the establishment’s tanks are from the fish farms. There are dated photos with local dignitaries feeding fishes in the fish pen. So you can draw a conclusion that how “organic” the fish could be.
We have a nice fish dinner, with the whole fish prepared in soup, very meaty and tasty.
Smoking in public places, there are very officious looking notice everywhere in malls and restaurants banning smoking in public areas, but compliance of this notice seem depending entirely out of the good will from the general public, we requested twice in two days to change table in a eatery, because of some people near by chose to light up.
Regards for other people’s wellbeing seemed irrelevant to some people. And restaurant staffs are often reluctant to ask offending customers who lighted up to butt out.
Public littering, by and large, has greatly decreased, because of local municipality are keenly promoting littering is just not cool, once a while you do see some people throw their wrappers and fruit peels carelessly on the ground in rest areas along the highways.
Toilets are not as fragrant compared with years gone by, and are free at last.
I went to a local market for grocery, and was told the market vendors are the one who fared much better compared to regular wage earners or even the farmers who produced the food. Farmers are required to sell their produces to farming co-ops, and are often being squeezed out of the process, and they in my local friend’s opinion not given a fair stake.
Bargaining are tolerated by vendors, but you got to have a good command of the spoken language, or you just do not grasp what was said fast enough to take advantage of the fine art of bargaining.
We have a quick tour of the world famous West Lake (西湖), much has been written about and its beauty praised by many poets in China’s history. However I was told China has (I was told) about a quarter of the world’s population, and when there were a few thousand tourists descending on the lake area, the beauty of the lake loses its allure.
We walk by a tree with a lone squirrel climbing up and down the tree limb, with half a dozen tourists with cameras zooming on it. I was told squirrels are not native to Hangzhou, hence the curiosities.
Anyways, time to go home, so we drove the three hours or so back to Ningbo, if you close your eyes, and open them in a few minutes, you see those four lane highways with more than adequate road signs, LED panels asking people to drive with caution, not tail gating or cut in front of other people.
You would think you are in any other North America highways. I did. All the while feeling a moment of nation pride, until another erratic driver cut in front of you dangerously close to your bumper, then you cuss him!
Well, time flies, and I am ready to go back to work.