What fun I hand talking to students Friday night!  Skypeing worked perfectly and Jay and Phil did a great job on the other end.  I think it was exciting for student not only to talk to me but to see on Google Earth exactly where I was staying.  
            Historically, Hangzhou has had it ups and downs.  Marco Polo found Hangzhou to be “the finest and most splendid city in the world.” back in the 13^th century when the population was over a million people.  Most of the city was destroyed in 1861 to 1863 during the Taiping Rebellion.  Many of the rebuilt monuments were once again destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.  Today hard work has gone into restoring and reconstructing things that were damaged in the past.  The city is a thriving business center.  It was hard to miss the car dealerships for Bentley, Porsche, Massarati, and Ferrari on the main streets of Hangzhou. 
              Our hotel was on the shores of the West Lake.  The West Lake is a soothing and peaceful setting with gently sloping mountains in the background.  Just looking out the hotel window was calming after the hectic train ride and all the bustle of Shanghai.  Keeping with the calming thoughts, the hotel concierge hired a taxi driver for five hours to take us around to the sights.  He was an excellent driver and showed us were the tickets
              First we visited the Evening Sunlight at Thunder Peak Pagoda on the shores of the lake.  It opened in 2002 and is a totally rebuilt pagoda that rises from a foundation built in 976.  In the basement of the pagoda, there is a working archeological site.  The original pagoda collapsed in 1924.  The view from the top of the pagoda is marvelous as you look out upon the lake and mountains behind.  Each of the five stories of pagoda has a display with my favorite being the carvings depicting the opera White Snake.  I am sure you will enjoy the pictures we took of the fanciful figures flying through the air.  I know I want to find out more about this opera. 
            Next was Tea Museum of China were I learned a great deal about my favorite drink.  I did not realize that black tea (what I drink) is made by fermenting the tea leave.  We also learned about the nearby Dragon Well tea (Longjing) that some consider the finest in the world. 
           Temple of the Soul’s Retreat was built in 326 and totally undamaged during the Cultural Revolution   It is a VERY crowded place as throngs of worshipers and tourists walk the path up to the Liugong Pagoda and Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings.  The hall is very impressive with statues taller than 40 ft and at least 800 year old.  The odor of burning incenses is every where in the court yard as people drop bundles of incense into the huge metal pots.  Clouds of light grey smoke snake their way skyward from these pots.  Other pots hold only smoldering white ashes awaiting the next offering from the worshipers. 
         On your walk up and back, you pass the limestone Peak That Flew From Afar which is adorned with 10^th through 14^th century carvings.  According to legend, the peak flew from a holy mountain in India to this special and sacred spot in China.  Numerous of the carvings were damaged in the Cultural Revolution but repairs are under weigh.  My favorite carving was the Laughing Buddha who many people were taking pictures of.
            Even though we were getting tired, we headed out to the China National Silk Museum.  I was a bit disappointed since this museum is only big display cases and diagrams.  No guides (like the tea museum) to answer your questions and no audio explanations like at other museums we have visited.  The most exciting thing about this stop were the busy shops trying to sell you silk items.
            After a good nights sleep, Dr. Novak and I were off in the morning in our fancy taxi.  Our taxi driver was a woman!  She zoomed down the highway to Shanghai taking full advantage of ALL the lanes of the highway.  I do mean all since once when three trucks were in all the lanes, she neatly went down the break down lane never slowing.  We got to Shanghai and to our hotel in under two hours.  More about the start of the Viking Cruise Tour in another posting.  Yours, Mrs. Novak

Hi all,
        I have written more stories and have taken many more pictures about our trip BUT the cruise ship computer will not 'talk' to either a CD I created or my thumb drive.  SO some things will be on hold for a bit.
         I can tell you more about the cruise ship.  The ship can hold 300 people in 153 cabins.  On this trip we have 136 passengers and 158 staff members taking care of us.  The room is fairly large.  The bathroom is a little small.  The best part of the room is the lovely balcony we have.  It is the perfect place to sit while you sip on a cup of tea. 
        The cruise ship people are keeping us very busy with tours to some great places.  I will write more about the Three Gorges Dam but I can say it is an awesome sight.  I must admit I was a little disappointed that the Chinese are months ahead of schedule and the water behind the dam has risen faster than they thought.  Over 55 ft in one month according to our local guide.  Why is this a disappointment?  So much of the landscape up river from the dam is under water.  I will try to show you some pictures of what it look like before.
       Our tour of the Lesser Three Gorges yesterday was fun.  We took a smaller boat up what is NOW a deep river.  We got to see the over 2,000 year old hanging coffins and some monkeys playing in the trees along the steep mountain sides.  I was very surprised not to see more wild life on the mountains and we were told that other than the monkeys only wild goats live there.  I did not see very many birds flying around at all.  I miss their happy sounds. One of our friend with binoculars saw a couple of birds of prey fly high among the peaks.  More pictures later.
       Yesterday numerous people on the ship got sick.  I have my fingers crossed that Dr. Novak and I will be alright.  We are working hard at eating very carefully, drinking only purified water and washing our hands many times a day. We have anti bacterial handwipes that we use when we are away from the ship.  We DON'T touch our mouths with our hands.  This is one way bad bacteria can get in your body and make you sick.       
       Dr. Novak is off on a tour of the relocationed city of Fengdu.  He promised to take plenty of pictures and tell me all about it.  I decided to stay behind and see IF I could get the Internet to work.  I am so glad I did this!
       After lunch, we are going to have a tour of the bridge of the ship.  Do you know WHERE the bridge of the ship is?  Do you know what they do in the bridge of the ship?  See if you can find out information on this.
       Tomorrow we are going to a zoo and we have been promised that they have pandas.  After the zoo, we are flying to Xian.  Hopefully, I will be able to catch up with all the pictures and stories.  Yours, Mrs. Novak

Hi all,

I have been having major problems with the Internet on the cruise ship.  The first night I tried for 45 minutes to get to this webpage with no success.  I have tried each of the following days with no success. All of the TV and Internet comes in via satellite. 

DON'T worry I am still writing and will update you when I have a good connection in Xian.  I will try to get more done today IF things hold.  Yours, Mrs. Novak

     Just for the record, train stations and train rides in China are not exactly like they are in the States and Europe.  As our taxi driver arrived at the underground departure area, we were ‘attacked’ by a horde of porters trying to get our business.  A crew of them went for a trunk as another crew went for the front seat.  After paying the taxi driver, I had to go on the offensive and retrieve my luggage from the two vying groups and yell, “NO, only one!” as I am dragging the luggage off the second cart.  The one group then took us to where we paid.  They handed me a calculator with 100 on it.  “No! No!  Way too expensive” I responded  “I do it myself” as I grabbed for the luggage.  Suddenly the calculator came back with 80 on it.  I turned to Dr. Novak and he agreed.
            Eighty RMB (about ten dollars) is almost twice what we paid for the taxi but IT was well worth the strong young man getting us through baggage screening, down the main part of the station to the waiting hall.  He stayed with us as the departure time neared and brilliantly found a quick way through the ticket check in.  I couldn’t believe it but he picked ALL our suitcases up and carried them downstairs to the proper car and helped us to our seats.
         This was no mean feat.  You have to push and push and keep pushing to get on the train.  I felt horrible when this lady tried to push in front of me with her elbow and I pushed back!  She gave me a surprised look.  I guess most Westerners don’t push back.  I knew if I was getting on this train I had to push back.  Dr. Novak followed in my wake with a surprised look of wonder on his face. 
            The train was very nice and clean.  Each person has an assigned seat but some people try to sit in the wrong seats.  Dr. Novak and I had aisle seats.  The train is not a high speed one and gently sways on the tracks as it goes about 40 mph.  People selling food and drink are constantly walking up and down the center aisle hawking their wares.  One of the official ladies walked up and down with a tea kettle of steaming hot water.  Passengers would stick out their large clear plastic containers with green tea leaves in it and she would fill them.  People and especially children are constantly moving about.  It isn’t really noisy but I would have to be REALLY tired to go to sleep.
            As we neared our destination (Hangzhou), people started shuffling around.  I quickly packed away my laptop and reached for my suitcase above.  The kind gentleman sitting next to me gestured and took it down for me.  Poor Dr. Novak was not so lucky.  As he was trying to get his suitcase down a lady with a cart of food came up behind him.  She started to rant and Dr. Novak got flustered and he loudly said “Go ahead and get off the train.  I will try to follow!”  I took off down the aisle, exited the train and waited on the loading platform.  Just when I thought I needed to go back and rescue him, Dr. Novak appeared.
            Our next task at hand was climbing the many stairs to cross above the train tracks.  It sounded like bump, thud, heave, bump, thud, heave as each of us dragged our suitcases with wheels up the stairs.  All of sudden my suitcase got much lighter!  A VERY kind man came up and took hold of part of the handle lifting the suitcase.  Once again, Dr. Novak was left out of the unexpected act of kindness.  Going down the stairs on the other side was much easier.  Upon entering the train station, the attendant checked our tickets, showed us where the exit was and offered to pull one of my suitcases which I politely refused.
             I can’t believe how kind so many Chinese people have been.  As we looked bewildered exiting the train station, an official came over and showed us where the taxis were.  As we were standing in the line to get a taxi, a lady with a huge roll of something on her backed pushed past me and then got entangled with Dr. Novak and his suitcase.  At this point, I could only laugh as I watched the two struggle since there was absolutely nothing I could do. 
        Another official gave our taxi driver instruction to take us to our hotel and handed him the pieces of paper with the address on it.  Off we took but it became apparent at about third traffic signals later that our taxi driver didn’t know where he was going.  He rolled down the window and yelled at the truck driver next to us and I think asked for direction.  I decided I better go into action since Dr. Novak was looking really STRESSED.  I called the hotel on my cell phone and handed it to the driver for him to get directions.  We arrived safely at the hotel. 
            After getting the key to our room, the very next thing we did was ask the concierge about getting a taxi back to Shanghai instead of taking the train.  I want things to be easy!  More about Hangzhou in the next post.  Yours, Mrs. Novak

            On Thursday, Dr. Novak and I decided to do some final sightseeing in Shanghai.  We each selected one place.  I choose the Yu Garden and Dr Novak choose the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.  Personally, I think my choice was MUCH better.  
            I love to garden and garden design is very important to me.  Visiting the Yu garden was to experience a true classical Chinese garden.  I was not disappointed.  Rather than give you a small lecture on the design structures of a Chinese garden versus a classical English or European garden, I think you should just visit the pictures that I have added to photo gallery.  I have not posted all of the many pictures I took but just a few of my favorites.  Enjoy.
            After visiting the garden, we walked the streets of Old Shanghai.  The streets were congested with sightseers and people trying to convince you to visit their stores.  I must admit my dislike of crowds made me walk very fast.  I was not unhappy when we hopped into a taxi and headed for the Oriental Pearl TV Tower back in the Pudong.
             The Oriental Pearl s is the highest TV tower in Asia.  The views were spectacular of the Huangpu River and the Bund beyond.  I am glad we went to the top but the lines were long and I was getting tired of the push of peoples as we crowded in for all the elevator rides (three up and three down).  I was happy to return to the hotel, pick up our tickets for the train ride to Hangzhou and have a quiet dinner.  Yours, Mrs. Novak