Before we get into today’s post… Here’s a new section we’re going to call “So you thought you had a tough job?!”
(Click to see a larger version of each image).
Now that’s one unfortunate guy.
On to our regular programme…
Today we did some sightseeing with friends (Hi Barbara & David!) around west HangZhou.
Our adventure took us the west lake area where our first stop was the China Silk museum (not labelled in the above map).
HangZhou and Zhejiang Province is part of the “silk capital” of China, and the so called “silk route” ends here.
The museum housed everything you might want to know about silk, silkworms and silk production, including real looms and machines.
Above is a sample of silk on display, to the middle is an example from the Ming dynasty, and to the right is a full sized silk loom.
There were a number of “hands on” exhibits and a really cool magnifying system which allowed you to view silk at the fibre level.
Once we had inspected the museum, we made our way to a local bus and continued on through the mountainside to an area around Mt Lijilong home to the China National Tea Museum.
Nestled in the cradle of a large valley, the museum occupies a large segment of a flowing tea plantation. Despite the overcast colour of the skyline, it was still considerably arresting and picturesque.
Above are some pictures from inside the museum. Top left is a nice tea set, representative of a traditional arrangement. Next, is a photo of Toni sitting at an elaborate carved wooden table (which was simply awesome), followed by a picture of cabbage inspired saucers. lastly, a real treat, two specimens which are thousands of years old – circa 5300-4000 BC!
Also in the museum were a couple of wax statues depicting early tea competitions – so realistic – I thought they might be real people posing!
In the centre is a guide to the correct variables for making tea, and finally a shot of the HangZhou causeway which runs across the west part of the glorious lake.
After we had finished at the Tea museum we caught a packed bus back into the downtown area and ate dinner at a nice Sichuan restaurant (lots of Chilli!).
Later we walked up Yanan Lu and did a bit of window shopping, before catching a taxi back to our (temporary!) home. A little while later we dropped into the local Wu Mart to do a favour for a friend 🙂 – and returned at about 9:45pm.. tired!
Tomorrow is Anzac day so we’ll most likely be partaking in a game of 2-up and having a few beers with fellow Aussie ex-pats down at the Vineyard.
Until the next entry.. stay well!