China: Hangzhou

We are 18 days, 3 airplanes rides, 2 train rides, and 4 Airbnbs into our trip. There have been more hard moments than easy ones, mostly because China. Is. Hard. We knew it would be, so we came equipped with a VPN and Google Translate, and they have mostly been helpful. But Chinese characters are not letters so when, for example, we hold our camera translator app (which is supposed to be able to translate text by hovering the phone camera over the text) up to a menu, hoping to see a translation of the items on the page, we instead see things like “Pride Mountain Lotus” or “Lucky Moon Rising,” and no actual description of the food. So unless there are pictures on a menu (rare), or an English translation (almost never), we have no idea what we are ordering most of the time, and we just hope we aren’t eating animals we prefer to keep as pets.

Also it is hot. And humid. So very hot and humid. Only Robby and I really seem to complain about the heat and humidity; the kids seem fine with it and are pretty amazing little people. They have many whiny, ridiculous moments, but they are also amazing us with their willingness to try new foods and adjust to new surroundings. I was pretty concerned about how Miles (2) would do with sleep and naps without a crib. There have definitely been nights where he’s come out of bed 2, 3, or 10 times, but most naps and nights, he goes to sleep just fine.

In all, China is beautiful and so interesting, and the people are so kind. Despite the language barrier (I can count on less than one hand the number of people we’ve met who speak English), everyone has tried to be helpful, and we have felt completely safe everywhere we’ve been. We have chosen some pretty beautiful spots to explore in China. First up was Hangzhou, which is about an hour west of Shanghai.

West Lake

Our Airbnb was a far cry from the pictures on the website but we tolerated it because the location was superb. It was a 5 minute walk to West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where we spent a lot of our time. The lake is surrounded on one side by the lush green Wulin mountains, where Longjing tea is grown, and on the other side by beautiful parks, walkways, bridges, and causeways, where men and women dance, practice tai chi, sing karaoke, and play mahjong on the regular..

Gratuitous pics of what our Airbnb did not look like:

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Lingyin Temple

This temple is a Buddhist monastery in the Wulin mountains. There is a beautiful scenic park outside of the monastery with Buddhas carved into the side of the mountain leading up to the temple, including this joyful character.

We hiked a bit around the temple grounds, and Reed lit his first incense.

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Food

We are pretty spoiled in LA, which has some of the best food (including Chinese food) on this planet and we have not yet found any dumpling comparable to the ones at home (in fact, despite our best efforts, we have not been able to find some of the classic dim sum like shumai – we peer into every street food steamer hoping to see those delicious little dumplings to no avail). That said, the food was very good in Hangzhou – lots of soup dumplings and noodles, and we had quite a few memorable culinary experiences.

Our most memorable and delicious dish was Beggar’s Chicken from a restaurant on West Lake called Grandma’s Home. According to legend, this dish originated when a beggar walking along a road sees a chicken. He kills it to eat it, but without a stove, he covers it in mud and bakes it in a fire. An emperor passes by, is enamored by the aroma, and demands to know the recipe so that he can add it to the imperial menu. These days, a dough crust is used, sealing in the rich, flavorful juices. Paired with roasted cauliflower, sautéed eggplant, and sticky rice, this meal was sublime. Beggar’s chicken was everywhere in Hangzhou.

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Hefang Street is an ancient street with so many food stalls and tea houses, and samples to try at each one. We all tried everything, including jerky, tea, dumplings, marinated meat skewers, and lots and lots of sweets.

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We also ate what can be best described as an egg roll burrito from a street vendor near Lingyin Temple. It was filled with rice noodles, carrots, bean sprouts, and other vegetables. It was absolutely delicious and cost $1.25. We didn’t expect it to be so good so no picture, unfortunately.

The kids all agreed that this sausage on a stick from a street vendor was the best snack they had in Hangzhou.

Tea

We spent a half day exploring Meijiawu Tea Village, where Reed and Ari fell in love with the ritual of drinking tea. This village is also in the Wulin mountains.

Typhoon

A typhoon hit the east coast of China during our last couple days in Hangzhou. The rain was strong and constant for two straight days, and it was pretty windy out, so we were homebound in our teeny tiny apartment. Good thing I overpacked kids’ activities; we painted, stickered, played go fish, home schooled, played with legos, read, and watched movies.

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Thoughts

There is a steep learning curve here. Supermarkets are found in basements and all produce needs to be weighed and priced at the produce department and placed in plastic bags before bringing it up to the checker (we learned this the very hard way; after standing in line to pay for about a half hour, we had to go back to the produce department to have our watermelon and bananas weighed and placed in plastic bags). This country loves to wrap things in plastic. There are layers upon layers of plastic. This is how dinnerware was provided to us at nearly every restaurant:

Default coffee (when we can find it) is served with cream and sugar. We both like our coffee black.

Foreign credit cards are scoffed at here – no Visa cards accepted. So cash is everything, but local/rural banks will not accept foreign ATM cards so we need to plan ahead.

Everything is done through WeChat, which is like WhatsApp on steroids; the app is used to text, pay for nearly everything, scan menus, place orders at restaurants, and much much more. We use it often to communicate, but can’t use it to pay for anything (see above – no foreign credit cards).

We thought we would be able to cook some meals when we were sick of eating out, but kitchenware is scarce. A wok and a hot plate and a couple of serving utensils are about all we get at Airbnbs.

We have to ask for napkins at restaurants. We were charged 1 yuan (about 15 cents) per napkin at one restaurant.

We definitely stick out and are stared at. A lot. Partly because we have three kids (“more children, more wealth” they tell us) but mostly because we’re different. People want photos with the kids all the time, and we often see people videotaping the kids as they walk by. Ari is so very over it; Reed is more of a ham; Miles won’t cooperate at all.

China has been hard, but it has been worth it so far and we look forward to exploring the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in the next couple of weeks. We’ll fill you in soon on our time in Guilin and Yansghuo, two cities with the some of the most beautiful landscapes we have ever seen.

Cheers, and thank you as always for reading and following along! x