Saturday, June 02, 2007

Hangzhou - Heaven on Earth [27/05]

As the saying goes in Chinese '上有天堂,下有苏杭' - 'Above there is the Heavens, On Earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou'. This is the first time I am visiting to Hangzhou, and comparatively, I find Hangzhou to be more appealing than Suzhou. It is more orderly, more modern, and of course the sights are more expensive.

I find Hangzhou to be somewhat similar to Shanghai in its city layout. There are viaducts that allow vehicles to travel rapidly from one end of the city to the city centre and to the other end. And also the towering skyscrapers and residential condos that line up by the side.

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And here we are at West Lake (西湖), there are land bridges linking the east of West Lake to the north and from north to the south. Here are a few photos to see:

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There are many islands in West Lake and one of them is Gu Shan (孤山). It is barely a hill, just a short 2 minutes climb and we are at the top.

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And we are back down from Gu Shan, arriving at the north of West Lake.

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At the north of West Lake is also the Yue Fei (岳飞) temple. It remembers the general who battles against the invaders valiantly but was unfortunately framed by corrupted court officials.

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The tomb of Yue Fei is also in the temple.

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The corrupt court officials who were involved in the conspiracy to bring down Yue Fei had their stone statue carved out and kneeling towards the tomb.

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There are images of court officials and animals lining up the path to the tomb. One of them is a horse, which signifies loyalty.

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Now it is back to West Lake and following through one of the gardens.

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From there we arrive at the second land bridge that links the north of West Lake to the south.

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It took us 4 hours to walk through the whole of West Lake. Our next journey is to Ling Yin (灵隐) temple.

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The temple surroundings is famous for its stone representations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It greatly reflect the high level of Buddhist artistic and cultural achievements in those days.

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And to the main Ling Yin temple.

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Ling Yin temple is also located up the hill. So past the main hill, it will be uphill climb subsequently.

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Yea. And here we have back to the entrance of the temple.

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