ChinaBlog MiniTrip Day 2

Hangzhou. The most beautiful city in China is right now the most humid city in China. Actually, I can't confirm that, but it's in the top ten, or maybe the top ten of beautiful cities in China. It's 75 degrees with 430% water in the air. It's so humid you have to wear a face mask to keep from swallowing passing fish. After disembarking our train we herded 18 people through the complex and crowded station to a well-marked line of taxis. There was one set of directions between the throng of us, so we each took the phone number of the hostel, intending to contact the front desk and have them tell the cab driver where to go. Well, imagine the poor guy behind the counter who gets 6 simultaneous phone calls asking for directions. Only one cab made it unscathed, and it happened to be the one I was in. We began as an intimidating line of aggressive (more so than Beijing, it seems) blue and silver Hundais, and then one after another dropped away, taking wrong turns, stopping in wrong places, and getting forced onto conveniently placed dirt flipping ramps designed to throw wayward speeding Hundais onto large parked panel trucks. With explosions. Without a single incident, the Hundai we were in arrived at the hostel with us alone and confused, because none of the people in our cab had the check-in information. Ten minutes later, the next cab arrived, it's contents shaken, singed, and bleary-eyed. A third cab approached with its roof caved in, missing five hubcaps, but still operational. The last cab was being pushed by some nearby old Chinese men. We never saw the rest.
--Our hostel is situated right across the street from West Lake, a grand central lake in the middle of Hangzhou. It is famous across China for it's 'eight scenes', fixed picturesque spots with names like "Autumn Breeze over Moonlit Water" and "Melting Snow with Flakes of Sea Cucumber". They are designed to be seen on specific days throughout the year, based on their titles. They were made hmbafld years ago, and are the reason Hangzhou is pushed heavily by the Chinese government as a tourist spot. There is no construction in this city.
-- We took some time to eat breakfast, shower, walk around the lake a bit, and shower. On our itinerary was a visit to the Chinese Academy of Art, which has its impressive campus just down the road from our hostel. We put our stuff in the rooms, showered, gathered our cameras and cell phones and maps, showered, and left. Getting 18 people into cabs on the street is hilarious and exhausting, but we somehow managed. They had some showers in the dorms at the Academy, so we went there first to clean up, and then perused the interesting architecture, art, and gardens of the scenic place. We spent a good 2 hours there, including visits to nearby Porsche, Aston Martin, Maserati, and Ferrari dealerships. The Michigan people were completely astounded at these vehicles, and I began to realize just how skewed my perspective on cars really is.
--After piling everyone into the backs of five frantic people-movers, we returned to the hostel to shower and get ready for dinner. We're going out to a specific restaurant to meet up with someone who is going to give us a personal tour of the famous Hangzhou bamboo factory on Tuesday morning, and it's a really fancy place. I've been told that it might be expensive, which means dinner might be 10 bucks instead of 5. And we have to dress up, which means I'm going to be wearing a polo shirt with jeans. I know, you're having trouble picturing it. Anyway, maybe I'll be able to give an update when I get back. Hope all is well back home.
**UPDATE**
--The aforementioned West Lake in the center of Hangzhou has several small islands, the largest of which is connected to the shore by a short bridge, and is covered in restaurants. At the point furthest into the lake, there is a very famous old eatery, and that's where we ate dinner, split up in two private rooms. The food was good, we sampled a lot of different dishes (and drinks) similar to the ones we've been having all throughout the trip, and the menu wasn't as strange as I've been told it might be in this part of the country. Our dinner was huge, magnificent, and 600 Yuan for 9 people. That's 67 Yuan per person, divide by 7, carry the one, jump around in a circle, and it comes out to about $9.50 a meal. I'm not usually one to say 'I told you so', so I'll just say 'look how amazing I am', and assume you're capable of reading between the lines.
--One of my roommates was anticipating his birthday last night. It came at about midnight. Maybe exactly at midnight. But we haven't gotten to that part of the story yet. In any case, when we emerged from the restaurant several days after arriving, we were confronted by the quaintest wooden Chinese gondolas in all the land, brought there by blind monks plank by plank, and operated by University PHD students. 10 of us couldn't resist celebrating early out on the water. It was still very hot, but on the lake there was a bit of a breeze, so we were immediately rewarded for our impulsiveness. We split into two boats, and the two Physics majors deftly sped us out to one of the islands in the middle of the lake with just one fixed oar each (it actually looked impossible to keep these things from simply drifting in large circles, what with the Physics problems of always paddling on one side of the boat, but these guys' advanced degrees had given them tremendous control over our world's natural forces). When we got there, it was clear that this was the Hangzhou equivalent of "Makeout Point". The couples among us melted quietly into the foliage, and the rest of us spent 20 minutes exploring this little place Tom-Sawyer-Island-style. There were all kinds of ancient structures covering the island, so it was a stretch to see everything before we had to leave again. The student drivers had to get back to their labs. It was a beautiful, relaxing, utterly pleasant hour spent out on the water, and would be the last moment of peace for the rest of the night.
--Still hours away from midnight, the next stop, after a hostel shower, was an en masse stampede to a local deserted jazz club. We heard everything from old standards to Dean Martin to Eric Clapton, all crooned out by a 70 year old woman and her two sons on piano and upright bass. There was also sax player and a drummer, but they were small and plastic and covered in multi-colered lights. The saxaphonist was especially accurate and on beat. One of our bunch, during a band break, was coaxed onstage to play piano for us, and we got the whole bar (just the group of us, really. I said it was deserted.) to sing Hey Jude while he accompanied. He'd never been to a bar before, is the youngest of us （at 19）, and after being the center of attention sat down at the table and confidently ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. He took one sip and crumpled to the floor. We had to carry him home. Those who didn't head back went with the rest of us out to the most Dance-iest Asian-ist Asian Dance Club you've ever seen. I felt like Sydney Bristow, or maybe Marshall, as the Michael-Jackson-green laser light show pounded us into the floor one heart-stopping beat at a time. There were no inked-up, besuited mobsters in this club for me to remotely access hard drives from using stylish infrared glasses. Instead there was just the bunch of us jumping and dancing and having a grand old time until midnight rolled around, at which point I had a beer with everyone, said happy birthday to my roommate, showered, danced some more, and finally came home to shower. My clothes still haven't forgiven me. So that was my night. If they're all like that on this trip I'll smell like smoke until my birthday. We'll see.
-c