Hangzhou

 Today we went on a bit of a road trip. We had our driver pick us up at 0700 this morning and we were dropped off at 7:00 pm. We went to a city named Hangzhou and we went to explore the West Lake area. It ended up being a very hazy day (like most days around here it seems) so the scenery wasn't the at the best and so the pictures don't look all that great either. Back in the 1200's it was believed to be the biggest city in the world with one million people. Now the population is 1.7 million.

We took a boat ride to Yingzhou Isle to see the Three Moon Pools. When there is a full moon it is suppose to be very beautiful so hence the name. Then we did some hiking to Baochu Pagoda. Lots of stairs. I didn't feel like I should do any complaining as I was wearing tennis shoes and I saw some Chinese girls up there in their 4" heels making the same climb. We went to Baopu Taoist Temple. It was beautiful but they didn't allow any photos to be taken. We were there when they were preforming a ceremonial ritual. They were dressed up in some colorful Chinese costumes, playing instruments, singing and burning lots of incense.

Usually on outings I go into my dehydration mode because I have this "thing" about using public restrooms. I'm a little bit of a germ/handwashing freak. Anyway...I got to experience my first squat toilets. I had heard the Chinese prefer these over regular toilets and that they even may place their feet on the toilet seats of regular toilets and squat away. One thing my mom always asked us growing up before we left the house is if we had a Kleenex in our pockets. Thank goodness for habits because there were no signs of these toilets ever providing any toilet paper. Another habit I have is carrying hand sanitizer, another blessing in disguise.

We had a late lunch while we were there and managed to point to some pretty good pictures and the food was actually good.

Last night Mark's new boss and his wife took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. They had some Mexican items on the menu but a lot of different types of food too. They have lived here for 4 1/2 years and have 2 kids ages 12 and 8. They are set to head back to the States in the next year.

Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of the holiday. We just plan on lying low. Mark has to work on Saturday until next Friday. It will be a long week.