Good for you!

Yu Ling is so convinced of the healing and healthy properties of the Dragon Well green tea that she made us remove our glasses and allow the steam from the tea to envelop our eyes as it it 'full of Vitamin C which is very good for you'. We went to a farmer's restaurant for lunch as she is very supportive of 'true farm produce' i.e.village cuisine, equating it with our organic quality.....We had a great meal for 4 of us for 180 yuan ($26.00) which we thought expensive I might add. However we discovered that the meal of 5 different dishes cost a total of 100 yuan while the 4 glasses of green tea were 20 yuan each - more than a Starbucks coffee!!!!



She wasn't finished with us yet though and we walked from the village to a beautiful conservation area known as 'Bamboo Lined Path'at Yunqi. It is located at the foot of Wuyun Hill and winds its way through an open bamboo grove within which are protected and unique trees most of which are very old. It is rather like a beautiful arboretum. One of the camphor trees is more than 500 years old. Camphor as you know is used to make camphor balls for protecting clothes against moths and camphor sticks to make your house smell nice and of course for coffins to preserve the body within.

The pathway through this park is laid with three kinds of stone. One, the middle path is quite wide and edged with a darker line of stone which separates it from the outer and narrower paths. Apparently this was so that the emperor could ride or walk or be carried along the middle while his concubines meekly followed on either side on the path of different stones!!!! No doubt you realise that there was no such separation on this day.

Then on we walked all the way back to the bottom of West Lake where we visited the Six Harmonies Pagoda. By this time the young ones were exhausted and amazed that us oldies could keep going and look so unperturbed. Must say we didn't find it difficult after all we have climbed Macchu Pichu!!!!

It was getting dusk by this time so we abandoned climbing to the top of the pagoda in favour of a quick look at the extensive hilly grounds where more than 100 replicas of famous Chinese pagodas are displayed in the woods and pathways. Beautifully done and I will tell you more of them and the story attached to the pagoda when we return in the summer.

We finished off the day by going to one of Yu Ling's favourite restaurants near the lake called West Lake Spring and while we were waiting for a table went across the road to see the new Art School. It is known as the Nanshan Road Art Academy and houses more than 1000 students. It is the premier art school in the country. The building itself is beautifully designed being very modern and including dark rosewood, steel, concrete and water moats around the columns. It was too dark by this time to take pictures but we want to return to see it in the sun so I'll take one then.
A sumptuous meal was then enjoyed where we once again tried local dishes including some Dim Sum specialities such as Darion,a sort of custard in a very light fine pastry, and Shrimp in a bun (not a great translation) and white radish marinated in XO sauce, a dark rather spicy sauce. This along with several other dishes including chicken claw, followed by mango pudding (a kind of mango custard) and osmanthus tea completed a long but enjoyable day.