On the road

I am now in Hangzhou and have had a very interesting day. Our first stop this morning was one of the best known and oldest silk factories in this area. It is an area known for fertile soil, great mulberry bushes, and silkworms that grow very big. We got to see the bushes, the worms, the cocoons, the hand sorting of cocoons, the pulling of the silk from the cocoon—the spinning, the weaving, then the finished silk. It ended in  a giant showroom of beautiful silk clothes.

We tried to go to another Buddhist temple that was over 900 years old (in its present form). It was built at least 700 years before, but was destroyed by—what else—warring factions. There is one turtle left there in the pond that is 400 years old—his partner of 400 years just died last year. Unfortunately, the road narrowed, and there was an overpass.  Our bus was very, very big, and after our tour guide stood outside measuring the inches, it was decided we would not fit.  That meant no temple visit today AND figuring out how to get back down a one-way street. 

The non-philosophy people cheered at the news of no more temple visits today (We had already seen a Taoist temple just before lunch.). As one kid said—you see one temple and smell a little incense and then they all look the same. He is with the logistics class. Frankly, I am enjoying looking at all the statues and seeing the people come and go. I love the building shapes, too, but I’m in the philosophy class.

It took our bus about 20 minutes to crawl, bully, push, and honk its way back up three very short blocks we had just come — after which our bus driver did a magnificent three-point turn in the driveway of a construction site, with the construction manager yelling at us. (Remember, girls, your dad always told you that if you mastered the three-point turn, you could get out of any driving situation.) 

 As it turns out, no one here gives an inch, while everyone seems to have a death wish behind the wheel of anything that rolls. We watched our driver come nose to nose with other buses that did not want to give us passing room.  We saw cars almost crawl under the bus.  Motor scooters literally squeezed between two buses so they didn’t have to stop. 

Have I mentioned no helmets, children perched on the back of scooters or sandwiched between two people? 

 

When we finally made it to the corner of the main street, a policeman watched as our driver faced down a hoard of motor scooters and bicycles.  Then the policeman helped us —  sort of —get onto the main street. We cheered and clapped for the driver, and for Jack (our fearless guide) who walked in front of the bus trying to be a human shield. "All in a day’s work," he said.

I think someone said we have 11 more days. We will be in Hangzhou for three days and two nights. Then we return to Shanghai on Tuesday night and have many outings on Wednesday. We leave Tuesday night at 10 p.m. for Beijing. The train pulls into Beijing on Wednesday morning at 8 a.m., and we head to the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. I’m sure we will be a bedraggled sight for sore eyes, but we are American tourists after all.