China Trip – Hangzhou (2)

Hangzhou Town Centre
The town centre is a small area where all the shopping malls are located. The merchandise in these large shopping malls is expensive – clothes are at several hundreds Reminbi (RMB), almost equivalent to S$100. The reason is the higher taxes on imported goods. Hence, imported goods in China are more expensive than the prices in Singapore.

There is a big square just in front of the shopping malls where groups of teenagers and toddlers gather to learn and show off their blading skills. Many parents will start sending their children to for in-ling skating lessons at a tender age so that these children can hone balancing skills as well as be toughened from the falls they need to endure to pick up the in-line skating.


Mei Jia Wu Village
Mei Jia Wu Village (梅家坞村) is a village where the entire village was in the Long Jing (龙井)Tea business and has the Mei surname. The people in Mei Jia Wu Village have income above average as many own the lands of the tea plantation. Hence, daughters of Mei Jia Wu Village are not married out, but the sons-in-law are instead married in.


Dragon Well Tea (Long Jing Tea), a form of green tea with a PH of 7.2, is one of the local produce of Hangzhou. To ensure that the PH is maintained at 7.2, the tea bushes could only be planted to at most mid mountain. Its slightly alkaline nature, relative to the acidic nature of other tea, means it will not be harmful to the gastric. In addition, green tea has not been subject to roasting like other red teas, so its antioxidant level is higher. Antioxidants can help to keep a person youthful and prevent cancer.

Dragon Well Tea is a government controlled business in China, in terms of its quality, quantity and prices. The other government controlled businesses include Suzhou’s Silk, Wuxi’s Zisha, Wuxi’s Tidbit, etc.

The best tea leaves are those that have a one-leaf one shoot (Yi1 Jian4 Yi1 Xin1) which are normally located at the top of the bushes. The tea is best in the spring season and before the Qing Ming festival, followed by spring season after Qing Ming until the rainy season and finally the spring season after the rainy season. Leaves in summer are considered poor quality and not used for drinking by the Tea connoisseurs.

(Mixing Tea)

In Hangzhou, the people have the habit of drinking cold-brewed tea in replacement of water. Cold-brewed tea involves mixing a smatter of tea leaves in a bottle of water. The beverage has a light fragrance and is very refreshing. The Hangzhou people believe that the cold-brewed tea helps to detoxify, reduce cholesterol and prevent cancer. It can even have slimming effect if one adds some dried orange peels (San1 Cha2).

Song City (Song4 Cheng2)


The introduction brief of the performance states that if one gives Song City one day, Song City will give one a thousand years. Song City is the venue where one of the most famous performances in Hangzhou will be held. Outside the auditorium, there are also activities and exhibitions to view. Both the performance and the place aim to provide the visitors an overview of the Song Dynasty and Hangzhou’s legends.

The place is a replica of the Song Dynasty, including the food and the activities. There is also a section devoted to introducing the four greatest inventions of China – gunpowder, paper, compass and printing techniques. We can find the well-known stinky Beancurd here – one will be able to smell it miles away. The red bean pancakes (pan-fried) is delicious. The hot sweet potato is very popular, especially in the cool weather. It smells very nice but the texture is slightly softer than what we normally find in Singapore.

The Romance of the Song Dynasty is a musical summarizing some of the legends known in Hangzhou which include stories of Yue Fei, White Snake and Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai. In addition to the beautiful songs and dance, it also has multi-dimensional stage which draws the audiences into the stories. While the performance is carried on in the centre stage, there may be activities in the small and high-level stages at the sides or middle of the auditorium. When there is rain, water will drop from the top. One word summarised the performance – spectacular.

West Lake New World (Xi1 Hu2 Xin1 Tian1 Di4)
In Jiangnan, the place where the pubs, cafés and eateries gathered are known as New World (Xin1 Tian1 Di4) - one in Hangzhou and one in Shanghai. The New Worlds are similar to Holland Village, Seah Street, or Boat Quay in Singapore.

In Hangzhou, some of these restaurants overlook West Lake, an idyllic place for catching up with friends over a cup of tea or fine food. The famous Taiwanese tea chain can be found here – One Tea One Seat (Yi1 Cha2 Yi1 Zuo4). Coffee drinking is not very common in China. The coffee tastes very watered down, unless it is one from the international coffee chain, eg Starbucks.

He Fang Street
He Fang Street is one of the oldest shopping streets in Hangzhou. The things sold are rather touristy and expensive. Here, we can find one of the most famous chopstick shop in China – Hangzhou is known for its good quality chopsticks.

Shopping here is more of an experience rather than a conquest as it is more of admiring the old buildings rather than being able to have a lot of purchases.

Local Fare
Hangzhou has many signature, centuries-old dishes – sugar-vinegared fish (Tang1 Cu4 Yu2), Dongpo Meat (Dong1 Po1 Rou4;東坡肉) and Beggar’s Chicken (Jiao4 Hua1 Ji1).

We were filled with anticipation for trying out these dishes’ tastes. Too high expectation leads to greater disappointment, especially when we have been too used to the Asean flavour.

We found sugar-vinegared fish to be too sour. The use of fresh water fish (as opposed to sea water fish) made it more difficult to eat because of the many bones. We missed our Singapore’s sweet and sour fish. The Dongpo Meat was among the best. It is made of black soy sauce stewed pork. It has a strong aroma. Unfortunately, the meat used was too fatty which slightly turned us off. The Beggar’s Chicken is made of baked chicken with preserved vegetables (Mei2 Cai4) in Lotus Leaves. The meat was tough and salty. My sister has even erroneously thought it was made of duck rather than chicken.

We also have had our lunch at one of the leading food franchises in Hangzhou – Red Claypot (Hong2 Ni2 Sha1 Guo1) Restaurant. The setting was elegant but the food was mediocre.

(The rooms surrounding the main dining area on second floor are the VIP rooms)

Hangzhou is undergoing rapid development. It has one of the biggest indoor stadium which can house 60,000 people. The property prices are also among one of the highest in Jiangnan region. I was impressed by the harmonious balance that the state government has achieved between preserving the natural landscape as well as urbanization.