Sights in Hangzhou

A few more photos from the day Tamara and I spent in Hangzhou last week~ below is one of the rooftops from the Lingyin Temple and monastary. Love the bright color!
Double stacked bird cages, each with a little bitty bird inside


Pathway leading to the entrance to Lingyin Temple and monastary
Sculptures in the grottoes at Feilai Peak- ancient art from the Song Dynasty
I loved how these sculptures seemed to be part of the rocks and forest around them... hidden away in the woods!
Tamara and I wondered if this could be the skeleton of some ancient serpent...!
This is the largest of the sculptures on Feilai Peak (translated means Peak That Flew Here). It is nine meters long!
What does this oddly shaped tree make you think of? Tam and I both had the same thought about it.
Famous chicken dish for lunch... chicken roasted in lotus leaves for many hours.



By West Lake
Andrew and Jenna and their girls are coming to see us in April... hoping these photos get you guys excited about your trip! We'd love to spend a couple of days in Hangzhou with you during your visit. :-)

In the Mist at West Lake

My cousin Tamara is here with me this week... a wonderful treat! Today the two of us took off from Shanghai and headed to Hangzhou on the train. It was quite smoggy this morning, but it made for some striking photos around the lake. This picture, which I took in the late morning, appears to be black and white but it is really just the effect of the air quality! I love it! Despite the smog in the morning, it turned out to be a lovely, warm day and we thoroughly enjoyed the springlike weather and the chance to enjoy it in a natural area.

More pictures from Hangzhou to come... although I'm hoping my next post might be of our new niece or nephew, hopefully arriving "on the outside" in the next few hours!

With Dad By the Water

These two pictures were taken almost exactly two years apart. One of them was taken just days after Gwen joined our family, by the Pearl River in Guangzhou. The other was taken last month by West Lake in Hangzhou. I'm sure you can guess which is which! I thought of the Pearl River picture right away when I saw the West Lake photo. I've only just now caught up to the adoption trip photos and gotten them loaded onto my laptop so that I could actually compare them.

More Hangzhou

Seven centuries ago, Marco Polo pronounced Hangzhou "the finest, most splendid city in the world... where so many pleasures may be found that one fancies oneself to be in Paradise."

I think the modern day city of Hangzhou is fairly ordinary, but the beauty of the lake and mountains surrounding it were surely beautiful. We so look forward to going back and exploring Hangzhou further... who will join us?!

I loved the color of this tree we saw by West Lake! I really missed the beautiful fall colors this year that we normally experience in the Midwest. There are still many trees (I use many loosely, as there aren't really many trees overall... we live in the city, after all!) in Shanghai that are fully green~ I don't know when their leaves will fall! Some trees have lost their leaves here, but not with the flaming colors of the maple trees I am accustomed to.
Strolling along the causeway.
Scott and the girls posing under this cool archway... I waited and waited, but these other people would not move out of the way!

By the Water

It was such a wonderful treat to walk by West Lake while we were in Hangzhou. The combination of the hazy sunshine glimmering over the expanse of the lake, the willows by the water, and the mountains in the distance somehow breathed life into the part of me that has been so missing wide open spaces. There are several causeways, one that we strolled and rode a pedicab over. We also took a short boat ride on one of the open boats, all with little lace covered tables between the two facing bech seats.
Maribel, Gwen, Andrea and Madelyn sat across from Scott and I on the boat ride.
Can you see the little lace covered table on the boat?

What the Boys Did

Caleb and Seth and the Hillmer boys did a fair amount of skating while we were in Hangzhou. It is, after all, one their top activity choices. In China, this type of activity tends to draw a crowd. After lunch on Saturday, the boys found a place near the lake that had long, wide stairs encircling a monument~ perfect for skating. As soon as the four of them began their skateboarding and rollerblading tricks, the local people began to gather. In a very short time, they had a crowd of no less than fifty-some people... maybe more. They ended up staying in that spot for several hours, loving the audience. At one point, Seth lost a wheel off of his roller blades, and soon the crowd was hunting for the bolt to reattach it. Once it was found, someone else in the crowd produced an Allen wrench so Seth could get the wheel back on!

Here is Seth, airborne, outside the hotel. If you look closely, you will see that he does have his mouth guard in place.

West Lake, in Hangzhou

Train Trip

Saturday morning we took the train from Shanghai to Hangzhou with our friends the Hillmers. Hangzhou is southwest of Shanghai, just an hour and fifteen minute train ride. We had not been to the train station before and were pleasantly surprised. It is quite large and very bright and new. I wish I had taken a picture of the station! The Hillmers are friends that we first met at our church, just a couple of weeks after we arrived in Shanghai. They have boys roughly our boys' ages and a daughter Gwen's age. They are in our small group, and their boys attend Concordia with Caleb and Seth. We went to Hangzhou for an overnight to do a little sightseeing, but mostly to attend a service at the largest church in China, where Luis Palau was speaking this weekend.

Gwen and Andrea (pronounced the Spanish way, On-dray-a) settle in for the ride. Gwen and Andrea are fast friends. They talk about each other often and hate to leave each other! They remind me of Madelyn and her friend Livie... when they were two years old they reached for each other as soon as they saw each other, and always cried when they had to part.


Me with Maribel. We are playing with the play-doh she brought for the girls!
Looking down the aisle.