The night before, when we arrived in Hangzhou, we had the pleasure of watching Zhang Yimou’s The Impressions of West Lake. Probably one of the most awesome shows I will ever experience in my life. The guy knows exactly how to punch you in the chest with combinations of light, music and movement. I highly recommend it, even if you have to sit in the rain like we did!
My least favourite breakfast of them all. Nothing looked appetizing. Maybe it was because our trip was coming to an end? The buffet line looked boring and not tasty at all. I can’t remember what I ate. Not much. For sure.
We cruised West Lake during the morning and went to a tea plantation afterwards. The tea plantation is well known for their Dragon Well tea.
The man pictured here is drying the tea leaves by hand. They don’t use machinery here as to not ferment the leaves. The fresh green leaves are hand tossed over and over again in a drum that is about 175°F. We sampled different grades of green tea and brought home Emperor’s Dragon Well tea. I have to say, it’s quite good.
After tea, we were taken to lunch at a nearby restaurant. Not bad!!
We had “beggars chicken” for which Tony never did tell us the backstory to. Ron says it’s called beggars chicken because after you have some, you’ll beg for more. But my dad says it’s because the chicken is wrapped in leaves and cooked with a variety of other meats and stuff, like the way beggars would collect food scraps, wrap them in leaves, and cook it all together under the ground. I have no idea who is right or wrong, but that chicken was pretty darned delicious!
Along with our many veggie dishes, we had these buns that we could fill with meat! The buns looked like mushroom tops. They were very soft and yummy.
Tony took us shopping on Qinghe Ancient Street which was fun. I bought a bunch of souvenirs there. And then we had dinner at this place:
Reasons why Jiaxuan Restaurant sucks:
1. Food sucks.
2. Waiters suck.
3. Head waitress sucks most.
Look at my food!
Booooo! Wack veggies, no meat, poor quality food. If you’re ever in that area, avoid this restaurant at all costs. YUCKO!
We left for Shanghai and were able to walk around the Bund. It was pretty amazing. Kim also bought this little bowl of cold shrimp noodles:
The tiny shrimps were so cute! Spicy and tasty!! WOOHOO!
let's grub 