14 Jul Hangzhou: Beautiful Scenery and Tons of Green Tea
Taking a train for the first time was such a fun experience. I felt like the seats were very comfortable, since I’m about six feet tall, and Absolute Internship did such a great job coordinating us to our destination: Hangzhou. Hangzhou definitely surprised me with its beauty. In addition, the people, food, and buildings were all different in comparison to Shanghai. Hangzhou has much more rural scenery and water landmarks than Shanghai; because Shanghai has so much more skyscrapers. If I had to choose, I would prefer to live in Hangzhou over Shanghai due to the landscape.
In Hangzhou, we ate at a traditional Chinese restaurant. It was my first time eating this traditional of food. I felt pretty brave and proud of myself with all the foods I tried. For example, I ate foods like fish and shrimp (with the eyes and scales attached), eggplant, fish ball soup, pea soup, etc. Most of the foods were all new to me, so I was happy to have experienced this opportunity.
Not only did we try traditional Chinese food, we did some amazing sightseeing. We went into a pagoda, watched a bride and groom get married, hit a giant drum with a wooden log, took a boat ride on West Lake, visited the nine creeks (in Dragon well tea village), and even had the opportunity to try freshly brewed green tea made by locals. It was an unbelievable experience, and by far one of my favorite trips I’ve ever taken.
I would have to say my overall favorite part of the trip was visiting the nine creeks that were located in the dragon well tea village. In order to continue viewing each creek, you had to continue on a one-way path and walk across the creek on unstable rocks. It was definitely a thrill. Often times, someone would accidentally fall in on the rocks, so overtime, we would use teamwork and help one another cross the creek. Not only were the creeks beautiful, but the land around it was breathtaking. Basically, each creek had a different type of scenery. There would be terraces near one creek, and hills with beautiful trees near the next creek. It was definitely a fun weekend to escape the city and hit up the beautiful greens.
I’m excited to see what Beijing will be like next week.
Stay tuned.
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