The second day of our Hangzhou Weekend started with a trip to the LongJing Tea Village – I imagined it to be a place like a tea center where you can try the different types of tea and then buy the stuff, but it was just a couple of houses with locals touting you into drinking tea at their houses and then buying their tea. We ended up going to one of the bigger places to drink a glass of tea – while we didn’t have a view, the area was pleasant enough and the air in the mountains is nice and cool.
The second stop was LingYin Si, Temple of the Soul’s Retreat. This one I really loved. The area surrounding the temple is beautiful and they have hundreds of small and large Buddha statues carved into the rocks. The temple itself is also gorgeous – set in the hills, the complex is vast and it takes at least half a day to explore it properly. Unfortunately we were a bit rushed, but at least we got a glimpse of the temple. Esthee told me that she had been living as a nun in a Buddhist temple in Thailand for a couple of days - I'd love to do that as well. It must be incredibly peaceful - even this place had a very peaceful air in spite of the swarms of tourists.
On the way back I found out that we had been traveling in the train’s first class carriage – I realized that the seats were nicer but thought that it was just a nicer train. Funny thing is that I didn’t ask for first class seats, they just gave them to me assuming that I would want them. Given the choice, I probably would have taken them anyway, as they cost less than one EURO more than the second class tickets. But in any case, traveling on trains in China is highly recommended. The same goes for visiting Hangzhou, though if you can try to go on a week-day. But all in all I had a lovely weekend.
|  | 
|
