Still adjusting to the new time zone, we found ourselves eating slices of mango with a handful of cashews at 2 AM, but went back to sleep until after 6. Our hotel offers breakfast late on Sunday, with similar things (noodles, eggs, fruit, rice porridge) and different things like tiny dumplings and steamed bean buns. We started our wandering around the hill above the hotel, a wooded chunky outcropping around which is a canal like waterway along which are spread the campus buildings. Rob had discovered a map of campus and wanted to get a feeling for where his class might be, as well as figure out which gate out of campus leads back to where we might catch a bus into town.
We discovered the bus stop, and continued walking into a maze of narrow streets jammed with shops of all kinds. Many different food vendors, but also clothing, dishware, services like tailoring, and more. Spools of yarn attracted us into one shop, where it turned out they sold cashmere sweaters made to order. Pick the colors and style, get measured, and voila. It was delightful to sort out the translations and in the end we left on good terms.
One more block and we saw beautiful large baskets and went in to a small tea shop where the vendor offered us the smell of various handfuls of green tea out of large bags. Then he enticed us with a drink of tea, and we proceeded to get prices and figure out quantities etc. It seemed a little expensive, and we weren’t sure it was our favorite, so we offered him less than he asked, and his wife refused to bargain. Leaving there, we took a turn, thinking that was it for tea bargaining for today, when we found we had wandered into the largest tea market in China for the local Hangzhou Longjing tea. An odd sight we were, yet we were welcomed by a young man who worked hard to speak to us in some English. He and his mother and father were tea farmers who now sell the tea for others. They gave us tastes of the youngest tea and the next level, a difference in price from 1000 Yuan to 300 Yuan per kilo. We ended up buying 400 Yuan of tea, both types, and then they treated us to lunch! So we ate and laughed, used our dictation translator and dictionary. The 25 year old son is a fan of the Nets basketball team, and the mother carefully wrote out her address and asked for mine so that we could correspond. An amazing connection, the young man offered to help us with anything we needed while here in his home town.
Lovely to walk along the waterway and see so many people out strolling, but the air quality today felt bad. Our lungs feel rough and burnt, and we saw more masks than yesterday. It is not raining, but the air is thick as though misty, though it is not mist. We are fading and grumpy by 15:00, so perhaps still not adjusted. One more day before Rob begins teaching. He will meet his translator tomorrow afternoon, and perhaps see where he will be teaching, and get to scope out the set up for showing slides and using materials. We wandered into the building with large studios where it is obvious sculpture is taught and saw a range of works in progress. In some ways it feels very much like an art school in our country and in other ways not at all. There is a huge emphasis on the academic training. Check out the Tea Market Wanderings Photo Gallery
