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Tuesday May 15 - Up again at 0545 to see
heavy overcast outside hotel window - cannot see the sun despite the fact
window faces east. Bags packed again and left outsided the room for Vantage to
take to next town. Big buffet breakfast with many glasses of orange juice,
pinapple, French toast, eggs.
Bus ride then to airport - pass statue that marks the local origin of the Silk
Road. Statue of Emperor Qin just west of the city wall. The highway outside
Xi'an is already a super highway prepared for extensive city expansion and
future building. We had entirely too short a visit and missed seeing many
important places and museums. This time we have a chance to explore the modern
Xi'an airport. Here we find among the many tourist items models of the Qin
emperor's chariots and the Terracotta soldiers - an amazingly less expensive
than at the museum.
It seems in the airport that the Chinese don't stand in line but simply crowd
up at any gate. The fllight on Chinese airline is fine with lunch of chicken
and rice on board. We fly to Hangzhou,
from 1030 to 1230. It is too hazy and cloudy to see the ground until
practically landing. Then we see a river and many canals and lush green,
irrigaged fields with black earth so much different from Xi'an region.
Surprisingly, for such a large city and tourist destination the airport is
smaller than that at Xi'an. The drive into the city is very interesting as we
pass rows of colorful and very modern style
homes. They each have an extensive
garden. There are also many shops. This is clearly a rich area. We cross a
river and enter the downtown. Here the homes are older, crowded apartment
buildings with laundry hanging from the upstairs windows. Most buildings are 6
to 8 stories. The scene is much as expected from seeing photos of old China.
But there are also areas with new, higher apartments and moden office buildings
with much glass and many construction cranes. As in Beijing the concrete is
being poured floor by floor as the construction rises. They are not using
prefabricated concrete construction. There are also two story brick buildings
under construction. The streets are full of traffic despite the broad highways.
We arrive at the hotel at 1415. This is the gorgeous
Radisson Plaza at 333 Tiyuchang Road in
the downtown area. It is the best hotel yet. We have a two-room suite with
separate toilet and bathroom, shown and tub. There is a wide screen TV on a
wall in the bedroom and another in the living room. Each hotel also has a small
built-in safe. The furniture is excellent. Complementary drinks await. Plus
there is a well-stocked refrigerator. All the hotels have the modern pass card
key system. Here it also turns the lights on automatically and when it is used
on leaving it turns them off. The heavy cloud cover obscures the city making
photos from our 18th floor room difficult. But we can see much of the city is
filled with the older style, lower height, appartments. There appears to be
less widespread clearance of older areas than in Beijing. But interspersed with
the old there are some very modern, tall buildings, including one next door to
the hotel. The city is located around a lake and next to ranges of wooded
hills, some quite large. We see several pagodas on the hill tops.
With time to spend prior to dinner we immediately get a taxi to the Zhejiang
provincial museum (a complex of Chinese
architecture) next to the West Lake. This has many excellent Neolithic and
Bronze Age displays and in several attached buildings there are galleries of
modern art. Although we did not ask him, our enterprising taxi driver is
waiting on the street to drive us to the Mausoleum of Yue Fei, a Southern Song
general who was a hero in defense of the city and dynasty against the invading
Mongols. Unfortunately we are too late and the mausoleum is closed. So back to
the hotel via the lake and some hills, and then a short walk to buy Coke and
water. Then it is time for dinner. The hotel staff is large andexcellent,
helpful and cheerful. It is getting dark here at 1800. The rain starts again
around 1900. The Radisson Plaza buffet dinner in their modernistic restaurant
is the most incredible yet. We find seven different types of sea food, plus
several fish of unknown type. The counters have lamb, pork, ham, steak, roast
beef, multiple types of noodles one can order and a huge salad bar. Another
area has many types of desert. There are six or seven chefs on duty in the
huge, elaborate room plus many waiters and waitresses eager to please. After
dinner we talk with the tour director (Kelly) about China and the future until
around 2100. We are too tired to do more, so it is back to the room for sleep.
Tomorrow will be a busy day.
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