The Mel Lang Log: Hoorah for Hungzhuo!

At the camp I worked at for five years and live at now, there is a very popular cheer for the oldest campers in the oldest girls' cabin, Teton. "HOORAH FOR TETON!" Well, I am going to apply that to this weekend's trip to Hungzhuo, because I had so much fun exploring and adventure-ing, I want to shout "HOORAH FOR HUNZHUO!" Now, lesson #1, Hungzhuo is pronounced "hun-jo." Don't embarrass yourself by adding a "z" on accident in front of your Chinese friends. (Also a note, I am notoriously bad at reading words and then pronouncing them correctly. When I was growing up I thought for YEARS that "chaos" was pronounced "CHA-HOSE"... In retrospect: really?)

Because we had run out of bakery foods, we decided to stop and get some food on the way. I figured we'd stop at the bakery, but to my surprise, we stopped at a McDonald's. I had an egg and sausage McMuffin, and it was my first American meal in more than two weeks. Wild. (Proooobably wouldn't have been my first choice, but you take what you can get. :)

Because Betty and I are in Yongkang, we are an hour away from Jinhua where Beth and Jitka live. So, we took a taxi to a coach for an hour, and then a taxi to the train station. Then, we met up with Beth and her host teacher Yumi, and Jitka and her host Debbie. Then, we boarded Disney World's monorail, or a very fast train in China. (Sorry my beloved family, they didn't say "por favor, mantenganse alejado de las puertas.")

I like when they take pictures. It's like you're not just looking at two

travelers or two individual people, but a long friendship.

I had some extra cheese there, but that's because I taught Betty how to do an American smile, which means using teeth. She said that if she was going to do an American smile, she should do the "American scissors" and that made me laugh when I was smiling. I just love this girl so much.

Some light reading. About the French Revolution. Made in London. With American and Australian Actors. In an article written in Chinese. I love living in a global world.

When we got to the hotel, we changed and then headed to dinner with the some of Foreign Affairs Department for Hungzhuo, and Hungzhuo is the capital of our province. We were supposed to dress causally, but 1) I know Jitka and she always looks fabulous and 2) They are very important people SO we dressed for the occasion. Also, notice who is tallest in this picture? THANK YOU CHINA SHOES. I look good in the picture, just have to finish the "learning the walk in them" process. ;)

Sitting down to a beautiful dinner.

SO. LOVELY. They are well versed in foreign affairs obviously, so the dinner was perfect. Chinese, but not too out there that Americans can't eat it. Also, the host was, the director of the department whose American name was George. He was so charming and full of wonderful stories. He reminded me of a Chinese Christoph Waltz, which made the dinner even more fantastic.

Ok, strangest thing from this meal: bamboo shoots. You can buy these canned in America, but they were delicious fresh in China. Tack it to the list!

George giving Beth the gift packet. We all got gorgeous silk scarves (Hungzhuo is famous for pearls and silk), and information about the province in English. The strange thing is that the scarves we got all match our personalities perfectly.

From left to right, Josh, me, George, Beth, Jitka, Zhang Wen, and Ren Yuan. What a fun dinner! Everyone spoke English, so many stories were exchanged, everyone laughed, and as the Chinese friends I have always say to me: "It will be a wonderful memory!"

The next morning before our journeys, I took a picture of this huge horn thing in our hotel. I don't have a lot of details about it except that it has nine dragons, many of whom are showing playing with a ball, which represents a pearl.

There were also several ads from the fire department. I seriously HATE it when my rice overflows, everything smells, and I have to call the fire department.

Our first stop was West Lake. It is world famous for its beauty and is the major contributing factor to why Hungzhuo is known in China as one of the two most beautiful places. In this picture it was very foggy and it was earlier in the morning, so unfortunately West Lake is not showing its full glory here.

Betty is automatic. Whenever I see something and say "Wow!" or anything similar, she automatically reaches for my camera to take a picture of me. This is a dragon boat. Not like the ones they race, but the ones that cost $12,000 an hour to rent out to float on West Lake for your wedding feast.

Another view on West Lake.

Then, we boarded these boats to go out to an island in the middle of West Lake where you can best view the three moons.

These little guys aren't just trying to be stone snowmen, they are very famous. They are known as "three ponds mirroring the moon." The three stony pagodas were built in 1607 as the perfect place to view the moon at night. Here you can see two. These are deeply cherished by the Chinese.

Betty and I in front of the three moon pagodas.

This place is so famous, it is on the back of many editions of Chinese currency, 1 Yuan. This bill is equal to 16 cents in America.

If you look carefully, (and I know it's hard, but use your x-ray vision, Superman) you can see each of the pagodas perfectly centered.

Even the ground is beautiful on the island. An example of the Chinese attention to detail in the finer places, like this type of historical attraction.

Annnnnnnnd IRONY. Just so you know, her dad PUT her there, she didn't climb up on her own.

Some of the millions of lotus flowers which will bloom next month came out early--stunning. I can't imagine how gorgeous it will be when the lake is covered with them.

The three ladies at West Lake.

On the way back on the boat. Orange selfie.

We next headed to a very local tea house to eat dinner. It was VERY local food, and even our Chinese hosts didn't eat much. So, we decided to go for our trusty back-up because we were all hungry...

Our carby friend rice. XOXO, Americans.

One of the most AMAZING things about this trip was that the tea house with the food we didn't love was one of the places Nixon visited on his "week that changed the world" when the United States and China decided what they would do together. To that point, it had been two decades since anyone in the US had even seen pictures of what was going on in China, and Nixon, through his meetings in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hungzhuo, helped China head toward participating in the global economy.We sat where Nixon sat/stood which is crazy cool.

You know how individuals exist like my mother-in-law who are so excellent they are The Dr. Doolittle of their professions? This is The Tea Whisperer. Notice he is wearing a wolf shirt...

The Tea Whisperer can pack so much tea into a can it's unbelievable, and he doesn't break a single leaf. Apparently there was a competition of who could best pack the leaves into the cans and he won 5th place. You know, now that I write that, it sounds a taaaaad dull, but it really was impressive, I promise!

Heyyyy Camp Tecumseh, and thanks for the shirt design, Adam! I'm a little TEAPOT in the world's most famous TEA FARM! Get it? Precious.

Then we went to an amusement park, where this was one of the hotels... Uhhh, looks kind of familiar.

We went to the amusement park specifically to see this show. This is the ad for it in English. Impressive, no?

The amusement park was right beside an old village (as most place in China are. The Chinese say, oh, this is so and so it's from the ____ dynasty, it's not very old, only 600 years. Uhm, that's like twice my country's age).

Just like Kings Island or Cedar Point, they had shows. This performance showed the marriage ritual in Song Dynasty in ancient China. The king gives his daughter a ball of hydrangeas and she throws it over the balcony to a sea of eligible bachelors. The man who catches it will be her husband. So, she threw, and an amusement park visitor caught it and they acted out the ceremony.

You want an elephant ear? Or a blown brown sugar design like these?

We then saw the show. WOW. They put Cirque de Soliel with the Rockettes and got a fantastic show. Beth, Jitka, and I were floored.

Look, many little Buddhas! Baby Buddhas.

They came down the aisles and scared everyone to death announcing the coming of the emperor.

Imagine I am Alicia Keys:

THIS STAGE IS ON FIIIIIIIIIRE...

One of the romances of the song dynasty, one of the four most popular Chinese love stories everyone knows (a la Cinderella and Snow White). Here is a fantastic re-telling I found that is very close to what I have heard via word-of-mouth:

Broken Bridge is the place where Xuxian and Bainianzi met each other. When the two walked on the bridge that day, it suddenly became rainy. Bainiangzi, a beautiful girl, didn't have an umbrella, but Xuxian had one. So they shared the umbrella and started their first talk. Xuxian, the young man, was astonished by the beauty of Bainiangzi. They both liked each other very much and kind of fell in love at first sight.

But Bainiangzi was not an ordinary human being. She was originally a white snake that had practiced asceticism for 1,000 years. She loved people and wanted to be a human being herself instead of an immortal. Finally God let the snake be a woman for its good behavior. The day Xuxian and Bainianzi met was the first day she became a human. It was fate that they met. They fell in love and soon got married and lived a happy life. They started a clinic for ill people. Bainiangzi had magic power and used it to help those poor ill people.

But there was a monk named Fahai, who knew what Bainianzi actually was. Regardless of the good deeds she did, he insisted on regarding her as evil and decided to kill her. He went to Xuxian and told him what his wife really was. Xuxian was so astonished that he was died of fright.

To save her husband, Bainiangzi risked her life to steal a kind of holy grass from heaven which could bring dead people back to life. Xuxian came back to life. He knew his wife was a snake, but he also knew her good nature and still loved her. Unfortunately, Fahai, the monk, caught Bainiangzi and locked her up under the Leifeng Pagoda which was located along the West Lake. This pagoda is still standing there today.
(Story credit)

Huge set, real water everywhere!!

The end.

On the way to the bus for our next adventure, I fell upon the Chinese version of 90's American television show "Legends of the Hidden Temple."

For those of you who didn't love this show in the 90's, now you know what I'm talking about.

Then we went to a famous street for walking-only shopping. I met this big boy here. He and his 700 little babies all over him. I assume he must represent the infinite fertility of a country with so many people, but that's just my guess.

Oh hey there favorite actress of all time. They seem to have given you a little bit of lipo, but then, it's only a rough sketch. I'm always happy to see you.

I can't read much Chinese, but surely this sign says "Chinese Hot Topic."

Uhm, two of these things are not like the other ones...

Next, we were off to a lovely dinner, followed by a nighttime cruise on the canal. On our way, we ran into some little kids practicing roller-blading. This picture perfectly shows how much faster that little girl was than the rest. Two of them were so fast, these 7-year-old kids were DRAFTING. You know, what they do during ice skating in the Olympics when they tuck themselves in behind each other. Made me miss my roller skating childhood in Logansport.

Before getting on the cruise, in front of the entry arch that paid tribute to the fact that this canal led to the flourishing of Beijing.

A boat similar to the one we rode.

Me, Betty and her Chinese smile, and Jitka.

An explanation of the times of the tours, and then the little couple in the corner I took a picture of so I could make a joke about how this canal tour must be how creepy white men find and fall in love with Asian women. It turns out, they showed a video which they had made of this boy growing up "somewhere in Europe" and learning all about Hungzhuo, and then coming and falling in love with the city and the girl, only to be tragically torn apart. A version of the Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers theme of one of the four major romance stories in China, which took place in Hungzhuo according to the legend.