Welcome Back

Nothing in China stays the same. But when I went back to Hangzhou, the place where China and I first met, it felt all too familiar. The lake, which has been a symbol of Hangzhou even before the time Tang and Song Dynasties when it was a cradle for literati art and thought, is just as I remember it. Having traveled more throughout China and Asia I now appreciate just how special Hangzhou is as a city. The people are less bogged down by the burdens of modern Chinese hypocrisies and stresses. The city is cleaner, fresher, and more beautiful than Nanjing, especially with the plum blossoms and magnolia trees bursting with pink and white.

A walk around the area surrounding Hefang Jie brought back the most memories. I walked around an outdoor art piece and realized that I had been in Hangzhou for its construction.

In the construction phase (Fall, 2009)

A sleepy construction worker (Fall, 2009)

A sample of the final product (March, 2012)

My Chinese friend who has been living in Belgium for the past two years came back to Hangzhou the same weekend as I did, only he brought along 40 Belgians with him. The image of 40 foreigners who can't speak the language, don't recognize the food, and haven't studied the culture was amusing. I had started from scratch, too, just as anyone who learns something new must do. I knew how they felt, yet I found myself on the other side, identifying more with my Chinese friends and fellow expats than with the other Foreigners who were just getting their first taste of China.

Still, I saw parts of Hangzhou that I had never been to before. Driving to the tea fields of Hangzhou we passed the restaurant Green Tea (which I highly recommend) and the rolling fields I had visited with my parents, and we stopped only when we entered the tea villages nestled between the mountains.

I couldn't feel too badly for never having been to the tea fields during my three and a half months in Hangzhou, though. My former roommate lived in Hangzhou for her four years of university, and now, after over a year of working in a smaller Zhejiang city, she is returning. Even she has not exhausted Hangzhou's sites. Throughout the weekend we tried (and failed) to make it to 九溪 (jiu3xi1 or "Nine Creeks"), which neither of us has ever been to. I suppose it's another excuse to return to Hangzhou in the future.