We were taken to West Lake Park in Hangzhou, a beautiful tree-filled park with walks and gardens on the shore of West Lake, which was a tourist-type sight-seeing stop. We had a relaxed lunch at a typical Chinese style restaurant. It became one of the best parts of our trip. The food was a little more "Western" however, we did experience a variety of protein items such as whole fish (I don't know what kind), duck tongue, beef, pork, chicken, dumplings, rolls and desserts. This restaurant was located on a pleasant street that boasted many businesses. In particular, there were a variety of auto showrooms; Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Audi. These expensive cars could easily be found driving about this wealthy city. I wondered if this was how Chairman Mao envisioned his society. The residents of this city were obviously the "haves," and we had already witnessed plenty of "have not's." The mantra of Communism is that all are equal and everyone has the same amount. To witness capitalism in China was confusing for many of us. We boarded the bus and arrived at a major hog production facility located on the edge of the city. We were taken into a very nice building and received an explanation of the production practices from the manager. The presentation was complete with PowerPoint slides and some Q & A from our group. Perhaps it was the problem of translation, or our conversion factors were inaccurate, but very few of their production statistics made sense. Their discussion of waste disposal from a 2,500 sow and finishing unit left much to be desired. Admittedly, there was very little odor, and we were right next to the buildings, but the large canal/waterway/drainage canal was very suspect. We were taken to a meeting with local agricultural committee officials where we learned more about the area. After some discussion, we accompanied the locals to an old restaurant where we talked to the residents about ownership of land and property. Some of the Chinese officials described land ownership as a 75-year lease, yet others stated that it was outright ownership. I suspect it depends on what the government wants to do. Our evening concluded and we were off once again for an early morning and check-out. Our events from here on out were very much tourist activities. We stopped at a local market and viewed how many people in the world purchase their food items; inside and three floors tall. The first floor contained mostly fresh protein: pork, chicken and duck. There were all kinds of fish (which were cleaned before your eyes), shrimp, crab, clams, eels, turtles, etc. There were huge offerings of vegetables and melons, cabbage, lettuce, yams, eggplant, and other tubers that I couldn't identify. Any item that is desired for a fresh Chinese meal is available. By the way, the market didn't smell great! We traveled from the market to a tea "museum" and viewed how tea is grown, picked and processed. The daughter of the tea farmer gave us a presentation. I was impressed by her English. She studied in Australia for seven years to obtain an education in the field of marketing. The group was then bussed to the silk shops where we all shopped for items we could add to our ever enlarging suitcases. We all bought tea and silk for our loved ones back home. Our group then had lunch at a Pizza Hut on the busy street; however there were many differenced from their Pizza Hut and ours back home! Our next adventure was to the train station to travel to Shanghai. As modern as the bullet train may be for high speed travel, the station and its approaches were lacking. This group of older, white-haired, mature Americans had some problems with the multiple staircases up and down, then up and down again. The temperature was in the 90's and there had been a thunderstorm, with humidity at 100 percent. Dragging suitcases and carry-ons made us worry about dragging some of our group members. Luckily, we made the steps and stood in line at the train station, soaking wet from rain and perspiration, but safe and sound. On to Shanghai on the bullet! More later, Bill Friend -30- State Rep. Bill Friend |
