The Lake Xi hu
11, 12, 13 October
1990
We leave the Mounts Huangshan like we came, by minibus.
This time it’s a comfortable up to date Ivecco which will bring us to Hangzhou – 280 km – in the direction
of Shanghai. Wide rice plantations along the road, green or yellow according to their ripeness, from time to time somewhere
a pagoda but I ignore the landscape being still on the ways between sky and earth!
Entering Hangzhou seven hours later we
settle down in an ancient Mandarin’s residence, turned into a hotel located at the border of the lake Xi-hu (Lake of
the West which makes the fame of the place. Our diagram of expenses does not allow luxury, so we satisfy with a cheap room and common showers.
Tired
because the 6.000 steps and the journey we go to bed early. Strange noises seem to come from the floor. Milan discovers holes
in it and a company of mice! He tries to stop the “exits” with paper. Soon, hearing a nibbling, I definitively
decide to leave the room. At the reception nobody speaks English the only strange language used in the country. No effective
is my “MICE IN THE ROOM”! nor the sketch of a mouse. We have to be calm because the Chinese never shows animosity.
We are patient and finally we get a room without mice ………but without windows too!
Hangzhou
is an ancient imperial capital which Marco Polo (XIIIe s.) did the honors of in his manuscript “Livre des Merveilles”.
Nothing remains the fasts of the site where emperors and notables preferred to stay; no matter coming here to rest, the most
of time we spend near the lake Xi-hu surrounded by timbered hills with their temples, fountains and springs. At Longjing (Dragon
Well) Spring we buy the well-known Longjing tea. Sometimes exploring its small islands we plunge in the mystical atmosphere
of their temples.
Cookery is excellent and cheap. We enjoy the
fantastic choice of fish dishes and fine cakes we didn’t see until now. Throughout the 28 past days we found everywhere
all sorts of fruit we know but also exotics species like very sweet lychees and others we had never seen on our markets.
Comment jeanette@sbb.co.yu
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