Day 20 – The Closing Ceremony

Friday was my final full day in China. To mark the end of the programme there was a closing ceremony in the evening. In the morning my class practised the song we were going to perform at the ceremony in the evening – I think we needed it!

The ceremony took place in a hotel near campus and had speeches by various people – including George and Spring who looked after us on the programme. It was a great chance to reflect on the past three weeks, especially since it went by so quickly. We were all given our certificates and transcripts and had a final dinner together.

After the dinner came our performances. The beginner’s classes performed different songs and acted out some of the folk stories of Hangzhou and then came our turn. It definitely wasn’t the best performance of the night but was probably quite entertaining and we gave it a go!

Now the only thing left to do was to finish packing and to try and get some sleep before the 5.30 shuttle bus the next morning.

My class

Me and Spring

Packing

Day 19 – Mandarin Exam, Campus Walk & Night Markets

The day of my Mandarin exam had arrived. It’s fair to say I was a little anxious for the exam as for the first two weeks I wasn’t sure whether or not to move down to the beginner’s class. I decided to stick with the Elementary and at the time I wasn’t quite sure why – it was a speaking exam and included reading some characters. Thankfully it was fine and I somehow managed to pass, to my own amazement! Looking back, I’m quite glad that I challenged myself even though it was difficult. I hope that it will be useful if I continue learning Mandarin in the future.

After the exam I celebrated with oreos – one of my go to snacks in China – and went for a wander round campus with my roommate. The weather was so lovely and we knew it might be one of our last chances to explore our three-week home.

In the evening a group of us headed to the night market in Hangzhou. The market was a little smaller than I expected but very busy and sold lots of random things. There were lots of fake bag stalls, jewellery, tacky gifts and make up but also a nail bar and a stall for fake tattoos (I somehow resisted the urge but some of my friends got some quite humorous ones). A haven for anyone looking for cheap goods and definitely a bargaining opportunity.

Having wandered round the night market we then headed to a bar as it was ladies’ night, which meant we got free drinks. It was quite a strange bar with lots of fairy lights (some like a Christmas tree) and some Chinese people were playing perudo. It also made me thankful that smoking inside is illegal in the UK! It was a nice way to spend my second to last day in China.

Day 18 – Wuzhen

On Wednesday we spent most of the day at Wuzhen, which is a historic water town and known as the Venice of China.

The town is now very touristy with lots of markets and stalls but there are still people living in some of the small houses. I felt quite uneasy with the idea that as tourists we might in some way be disturbing some of the people who live there.

We got to see a number of the different museums in the town, such as the ancient bed museum (who knew?!) and another where silk is dyed. It was interesting to see the different crafts that are such as integral part of the culture and tradition in Wuzhen.

After lunch we got the chance to wander round and explore a bit more. There were lots of nice bridges and market stalls and near the entrance there was a stage with a Chinese opera. It was a nice place to spend the day, even if it was a little touristy.

Day 17 – Town of Japanese Surrender

Tuesday afternoon was the day of my academic field trip for Nation and Nationalism. The group headed to the town of Japanese surrender on the outskirts of Hangzhou. It was a little disappointing as when we arrived the museum was closed and there was a building site next to it – China is unpredictable!

Despite this, our professor talked a little bit about the place and it was interesting to hear him speak about what happened there after the Second World War. We saw a memorial to the people who had died, which was called a mass grave, though there were no bodies. It is strange to think this memorial is by the side of the road next to the mountains.
 

Day 16 – A Longjing Tea Adventure

Yesterday my classes finished for the day at 12, the earliest so far as I didn’t have my academic module in the afternoon. So me and a couple of others went to see the Longjing tea fields that Hangzhou is famous for. We went on a bit of a mini hike and saw some amazing views and lots of tea fields!

Day 15 – Cycling the West Lake

In Hangzhou cycling seems to be one of the best ways to get around. Since I’ve been here I’ve seen so many people on bikes and scooters, many of them using their bells excessively and shooting down the street. There seems to be more lanes for bikes and scooters than in the UK, but I wouldn’t say this makes it any safer. No one wears a helmet and traffic lights appear to be optional, add to this the fact that there are lots more people and it probably isn’t hard to see why I’m quite pleased not to have been injured. Despite the possible safety risk, cycling in Hangzhou was so much fun and a great way to see the city – plus I now feel a bit more like a Hangzhouvian (I think that’s a word).

The beautiful West Lake

I was pretty tired when I set off in the morning (not too early) for the cycle as the night before I went out to KTV (karaoke) with some friends. It was quite a surreal experience as you are given a private room (ours was fairground themed), and microphones. You get the room for three hours and can sing badly to your heart’s content. Sadly I didn’t do too much singing as I had a very sore throat but it was still fun to go anyway and to embrace the Asian phenomenon of KTV!
We rented some pretty snazzy bikes for our cycle (mine was green but one of them was pink and had flower pedals) and it cost just 30 yuan to rent them for the day, which is about £3. Bargain! It was a lovely day and once I had got used to cycling in China it was beautiful to see the lake from different angles as we went round it. We stopped at a lovely bakery for lunch before heading further round the lake to one of the big pagodas.

On my bike

The pagoda was magnificent and had incredible views at the top of the landscape all across Hangzhou. It was so beautiful!

View from the pagoda

View from the pagoda

After the pagoda we carried on cycling round the lake which was such a great way to see it and on our way back round we also went through a tunnel and passed a bamboo forest and some of the longjing tea fields.
Cycling is definitely the best way to see Hangzhou.

Pagoda

Day 14 – Family Visit

Saturday was a definite highlight of my time in China so far. To be honest, I was a little nervous about meeting a Chinese family – my chopstick skills are average at best and my Mandarin needs a bit more practice – but the family were so kind and welcoming that I would happily have stayed with them for a whole week. It was great to meet them and they looked after us so well!

When we first arrived we gave the family the gifts we brought them from the UK. They were really grateful. Before lunch the family took us to a really nice park and garden a short walk away from where they live. The place was called the Yellow Dragon Cave park – inside the park there was an opera put on for the elderly people, a matchmaking temple, various ponds and some small caves & ponds – it was really cool and so nice of the family to take us there.

Matchmaking tree

The beautiful park!

Opera in the park

After visiting the park the family took us back to their home and we met the grandparents who had kindly cooked lunch for us. I got to try some longjing tea (famous tea in Hangzhou) as well as a bamboo dish, lotus root from the West Lake and lots of other Chinese dishes. They were all really nice. The mother didn’t really speak much English but her son spoke English really well. It was really nice to meet the family from Hangzhou and the language barrier by no means hindered our time with them.

The lovely lunch we had

In the afternoon the family took us to the Xixi wetland – a beautiful place right in Hangzhou, I am once again surprised at how many beautiful places there are so near to such a big city! It was so kind of them to take us there as it is somewhere we probably wouldn’t have been able to go without a car. There was also some small shops selling different foods and sweets which we got to try, one of them reminded me of pretzels but a little different! The mother was so generous and insisted on buying us gifts, which was so sweet of her so I have some yummy Chinese snacks to take back to the UK!

Some of the food we got to try

Xixi wetland

The family were so kind and asked us if we wanted to go out to dinner with them so we went to one of the big shopping malls in Hangzhou and had dinner at Grandma’s. They ordered so much food and told us the best dishes to try out that I don’t think any of us could physically have eaten everything! There was also a dish which in the UK would have been pudding, it was like a sweet bread with ice cream, but they brought it out first. It was really yummy and great to try, even if it came in a different order from at home.

Ice cream for starters!

Meeting the Chinese family will probably remain in my memory as one of my favourite days in China. They were such a lovely family and I loved spending the day with them.

Day 13 – Visit to Zi Jin Gang Campus

Zhejiang university has several different campuses, our programme is based on the International campus but on Friday afternoon we got the chance to visit one of the bigger ones, Zi Jin Gang. It was huge and probably the size of a small city in England.

We were put into small groups with different students from the university showing us round the campus. It was really interesting to meet the students, hearing about what they study and what they think of Hangzhou.

Around the campus there were lots of different stations for us to visit: we saw the campus from the observation deck, tried some Chinese sweets (my favourite was an egg cake), saw a Chinese musical instrument and went to the large student cafeteria. The campus had some nice green spaces and lakes as well as modern buildings and it was really nice to wander round in the afternoon.

In the evening the students put on a party for us on the lawn, which was a bit like a talent show. They made it look really pretty with lights, balloons and glow sticks! Some of the student groups performed acts with a drumming group and different people singing English and Chinese songs. They also asked some of us to perform, which had some brave & obliging volunteers. It was a really nice afternoon and great to meet some Chinese students from a different university campus.

Day 12 – Silk Street

Silk from Hangzhou is famous in China so on Thursday afternoon I went straight from class with some friends to the Silk City. We didn’t know exactly where we were going and had to get the bus but with a little help from some friendly Chinese people we made it to the silk street.
My favourite thing about the afternoon was the bargaining and seeing all the different silk (though it was quite difficult to tell whether it was 100% as the vast majority of them claimed to be). As in the shopping mall in Shanghai, the price on the label is more than double what you can bargain it down to. I used my favourite Chinese phrase tai gui le (it’s too expensive) a lot! The group were bargaining with a lady in a shop for about half an hour which was quite funny. She didn’t speak much English and every so often she would point to a 100% polyester scarf which she said we could get for the suggested price. In the end I think she quite liked us (probably because we bought from her shop) and I think she liked me because she gave me the best discount.
After spending far too long at the silk market, we headed to Grandma’s restaurant and had a feast for about £4 each! I got to try lots of new Chinese food, including a strange purple cake which I think was made of rice – it looked like chocolate cake on the photo menu so I was a little disappointed as it was quite stodgy and bland but glad to have tried it!

Day 11 – Song Dynasty Town Night Show

This was the day I discovered the Nutella and banana pancakes on campus!

On Wednesday evening, after a usual day of classes, we went to see the Song Dynasty Town Night show. The show is based on several different Chinese stories from the Song Dynasty (960-1279AD). It was quite hard for us to understand all of what was going on as only parts had an English translation but the show itself was pretty incredible.

One of the stories was based around a hero and included canons and horses running across the stage.

Another was the Chinese version of Romeo & Juliet set on the West Lake in Hangzhou. The Chinese story sees two students, (the girl is disguised as a boy, maybe a bit like Mulan), but is forced to marry someone she does not love. The boy does not realise that she is a girl for a long time and when he finds out she is marrying someone else he dies of a broken heart. On the way to her wedding she wishes to visit the grave of her lover and she commits suicide by jumping into his grave. They are known as the butterfly lovers because it is said that from the grave emerged two butterflies.

There was also others, one about a Lady White Snake. Most of them were based around the West Lake and it was really cool to see some of the stories in the show that are so famous and well-known in Hangzhou.
The show was really impressive with dancing, acrobatics, trampolining, kung fu and even water spraying into the audience!