Day 5 in China

Today we started the day at the Longjing Green Tea Plantation. They farm Dragon Well tea hear and then cook it and package it for sale. Tea is a huge beverage in China. They have it with every meal and they also carry a cup of it with them all day. We were not big fans. It was interesting to see the workers picking the tea leaves. They had a huge wall that was covered with business cards and badges left by people who had visited here. Notice the mark we left behind?














Our next stop was the Lingyin Temple, known as the Buddhist temples. There were so many carvings of Buddha here. It was a huge garden/park area and as you walked you'd see carvings in the mountain. Many are more than 900 years old. As you head up the hill you can go in building after building after building and see 60+ feet Buddhas. They were unbelievably big!
















Our boat ride on the West Lake was like something out of a movie. Every thing you see looks like a picture made for a puzzle. I hope the pictures give you some what of an idea of what we saw.
















There are pagodas like this all over China. If you look up on any given hillside you'll probably see one. They are used for different things. This one was built by a ruler to represent beauty in women. Some are marking where people are buried. Others are where sacrifices took place. History everywhere you look.
















This is the Dragon Boat on West Lake. It is the boat that special dignitaries use. Needless to say we couldn't ride on it. On walking through the park to the bus we saw some peacocks. I've never seen one in real life before. They are so neat.
















Tonight we drove back to Shanghai to another embroidery factory where we ate dinner.

There was a mall next to our hotel so tonight we went exploring. I was hoping to find short pants in China. You'd think they would have such a thing, but not at the store we went to. We did find the best store clerk service though. They treated me like the queen of Sheba. I went in the dressing room with one pair of pants and came out to three attendants holding up complete outfits for me to try on. If I said I didn't like a style they would rush to grab another shirt and pants. When I left there was a stack of clothes in the dressing room and unfortunately I didn't find any pants that I like. : ( They were still very nice though. I did find out I'm not so great at Charades. I wanted to find some high heels there too, again hoping I'd find some cute small shoes. I pointed to the high heels they had in the dressing room to ask her where I could buy some. She nodded her head and took me to a pair of pants. I shook my head and pointed to my shoes and then made a heel on bottom with my fingers. She nodded and pranced over to another pair of pants. I tried one more time and she looked so confused and desperate to understand and help me. Finally I gave up and we left with a hug of understanding that we were both completely misunderstanding each other.