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City of silks, seals and snacks
May 31, 2010, Monday
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EDITOR'S note:
Hangzhou offers many travel adventures and the city has launched 10 fascinating routes for visitors to the World Expo in nearby Shanghai. Shanghai Daily will publish one route a week on Mondays.
Xu Wenwen
Every day when night falls in Hangzhou, locals take a stroll or jog along the West Lake or the Grand Canal; some sip tea and grab a bite in a teahouse and snack store. When the sun rises, some practice tai chi at public squares before going to work.
Calling itself the "Oriental City of Leisure" and "City of Life Quality," Hangzhou offers a relatively laid-back pace, comfortable living and beautiful scenery.
For tourists, the notable places of interest are usually on their itinerary, but wandering about the city and discovering its nooks and neighborhoods is a pleasant way to experience city culture.
As tourists from the World Expo in Shanghai are expected, Hangzhou has lined up lesser known destinations like teahouses, markets, snack streets, bars and communities.
Hangzhou Silk City
As one of the seven ancient capitals of China, Hangzhou has been a center of commerce for centuries, and business is an important aspect of city culture.
Hangzhou Silk City is China's biggest silk wholesale and retail market. It's considered one of the cradles of silk and is famous for excellent silks, satins and damasks.
Once silk was a luxury only for nobles and the well-to-do, but today all kinds of people love to wear silk fabric of all kinds.
Hangzhou Silk City on Xinhua Road is a sprawling friendly market, offering a wide variety of pure silk fabric, garments, handicraft articles, scarves and accessories at reasonable prices.
The 25,000-square-meter market has more than 600 booths, and bargaining is a way of life.
It is located at 253 Xinhua Road, at the intersection of Fengqi, Tiyuchang and Xinhua roads. Buses No. 11 and 28 run there.
Xiling Seal Engraving Society
Commerce encourages culture to flourish, and Hangzhou is famous for its arts and artists inspired by the city's beauty.
Hangzhou is home to the China Academy of Art, one of the nation's top art colleges, and the Xiling Seal Engraving Society, China's biggest national engravers' organization - and many other art organizations.
To Chinese, the seal is a symbol of authority and authenticity, used in lieu of signature and an indispensable part of traditional Chinese painting.
The seal itself is a harmonious combination of the arts of drawing, calligraphy and engraving.
The Xiling Seal Engraving Society is an academic organization studying inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone tablets and is the most influential of its kind in the world.
It is situated near West Lake on Solitary Hill in a serene garden setting befitting reflection and scholarship.
It was founded in 1904 and became a formal organization in 1913, headed by Wu Changshuo, a famous poet, calligrapher and painter.
The society promotes the culture of seal inscription and the art of Chinese calligraphy.
The seal society is a good place to appreciate China's seal culture.
It exhibits numerous treasured inscriptions and stone carvings, the earliest dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220).
The society's main buildings are artistically arranged, including Cypress Hall, Bamboo Chamber, Revered Sages' Pavilion, Happiness Tower and Pagoda of Avatamsaka Sutra. Steles and tablets are placed along garden paths.
The society has more than 300 permanent members from around the world. Every spring and autumn, it holds regular gatherings, workshops, exhibitions of members' works and discussions of Chinese poetry and inscriptions.
Contemporary artists sell their works in a small workshop, where visitors' names - in Chinese -can be carved onto stone seals as souvenirs.
Xinyifang Street and Gushui Street
Every evening, residents gather to dance at a small square at the eastern end of Xinyifang Street along the bank of the Yuhangtang River. They don't shake professionally, they dance to keep fit.
Xinyifang Street was created to help meet citizens' needs for leisure activities and enrich their night life.
Strolling along the street, visitors can find pop bands practising, a night market selling knickknacks, as well as restaurants, snack booths, bars, foot massage spots and other enticements along the 500-meter path.
The renovated street in Zhu'ertan Community in northern Hangzhou follows a branch of the Grand Canal. On both banks there are waterside pavilions, squares, gardens, kiosks and sculptures.
The street has 11 low, old-style commercial buildings. Three ancient-style bridges link the two banks, giving the feeling of a "river beside the street and the street alongside the river."
The major renovation retains the elegant air of the Grand Canal area, following river street styles of architecture and retaining canal culture.
It's a pleasant place to grab a bite or hang out with friends.
Around half of the establishments are restaurants and snack booths, many selling cheap barbecue and distinctive dishes from around China.
Popular bars sell beer for around 15 yuan (US$2.20) a tankard.
Another mecca for foodies is picturesque, 550-meter Gushui (Ancient Water) Street on the Shengli River, a branch of theGrand Canal. It's just south of Xinyifang Street.
It has a charming watertown feeling with old or new restaurants; it's crowded every night with strolling people and cars and lines of diners waiting outside eateries.
It features everything from famous donkey meat hotpot and beef offal dishes to spicy Sichuan food, Guangdong seafood and delicate Hangzhou dishes.
The renovated tourist street opened early this year.
It is nice to have supper there, with red lanterns and colorful lights decorating the Southern Song Dynasty-style (1127-1279) buildings. Green and blue LED projectors illuminate the mist rising from the river.
Hangzhou offers many travel adventures and the city has launched 10 fascinating routes for visitors to the World Expo in nearby Shanghai. Shanghai Daily will publish one route a week on Mondays.
Xu Wenwen
Every day when night falls in Hangzhou, locals take a stroll or jog along the West Lake or the Grand Canal; some sip tea and grab a bite in a teahouse and snack store. When the sun rises, some practice tai chi at public squares before going to work.
Calling itself the "Oriental City of Leisure" and "City of Life Quality," Hangzhou offers a relatively laid-back pace, comfortable living and beautiful scenery.
For tourists, the notable places of interest are usually on their itinerary, but wandering about the city and discovering its nooks and neighborhoods is a pleasant way to experience city culture.
As tourists from the World Expo in Shanghai are expected, Hangzhou has lined up lesser known destinations like teahouses, markets, snack streets, bars and communities.
Hangzhou Silk City
As one of the seven ancient capitals of China, Hangzhou has been a center of commerce for centuries, and business is an important aspect of city culture.
Hangzhou Silk City is China's biggest silk wholesale and retail market. It's considered one of the cradles of silk and is famous for excellent silks, satins and damasks.
Once silk was a luxury only for nobles and the well-to-do, but today all kinds of people love to wear silk fabric of all kinds.
Hangzhou Silk City on Xinhua Road is a sprawling friendly market, offering a wide variety of pure silk fabric, garments, handicraft articles, scarves and accessories at reasonable prices.
The 25,000-square-meter market has more than 600 booths, and bargaining is a way of life.
It is located at 253 Xinhua Road, at the intersection of Fengqi, Tiyuchang and Xinhua roads. Buses No. 11 and 28 run there.
Xiling Seal Engraving Society
Commerce encourages culture to flourish, and Hangzhou is famous for its arts and artists inspired by the city's beauty.
Hangzhou is home to the China Academy of Art, one of the nation's top art colleges, and the Xiling Seal Engraving Society, China's biggest national engravers' organization - and many other art organizations.
To Chinese, the seal is a symbol of authority and authenticity, used in lieu of signature and an indispensable part of traditional Chinese painting.
The seal itself is a harmonious combination of the arts of drawing, calligraphy and engraving.
The Xiling Seal Engraving Society is an academic organization studying inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone tablets and is the most influential of its kind in the world.
It is situated near West Lake on Solitary Hill in a serene garden setting befitting reflection and scholarship.
It was founded in 1904 and became a formal organization in 1913, headed by Wu Changshuo, a famous poet, calligrapher and painter.
The society promotes the culture of seal inscription and the art of Chinese calligraphy.
The seal society is a good place to appreciate China's seal culture.
It exhibits numerous treasured inscriptions and stone carvings, the earliest dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220).
The society's main buildings are artistically arranged, including Cypress Hall, Bamboo Chamber, Revered Sages' Pavilion, Happiness Tower and Pagoda of Avatamsaka Sutra. Steles and tablets are placed along garden paths.
The society has more than 300 permanent members from around the world. Every spring and autumn, it holds regular gatherings, workshops, exhibitions of members' works and discussions of Chinese poetry and inscriptions.
Contemporary artists sell their works in a small workshop, where visitors' names - in Chinese -can be carved onto stone seals as souvenirs.
Xinyifang Street and Gushui Street
Every evening, residents gather to dance at a small square at the eastern end of Xinyifang Street along the bank of the Yuhangtang River. They don't shake professionally, they dance to keep fit.
Xinyifang Street was created to help meet citizens' needs for leisure activities and enrich their night life.
Strolling along the street, visitors can find pop bands practising, a night market selling knickknacks, as well as restaurants, snack booths, bars, foot massage spots and other enticements along the 500-meter path.
The renovated street in Zhu'ertan Community in northern Hangzhou follows a branch of the Grand Canal. On both banks there are waterside pavilions, squares, gardens, kiosks and sculptures.
The street has 11 low, old-style commercial buildings. Three ancient-style bridges link the two banks, giving the feeling of a "river beside the street and the street alongside the river."
The major renovation retains the elegant air of the Grand Canal area, following river street styles of architecture and retaining canal culture.
It's a pleasant place to grab a bite or hang out with friends.
Around half of the establishments are restaurants and snack booths, many selling cheap barbecue and distinctive dishes from around China.
Popular bars sell beer for around 15 yuan (US$2.20) a tankard.
Another mecca for foodies is picturesque, 550-meter Gushui (Ancient Water) Street on the Shengli River, a branch of theGrand Canal. It's just south of Xinyifang Street.
It has a charming watertown feeling with old or new restaurants; it's crowded every night with strolling people and cars and lines of diners waiting outside eateries.
It features everything from famous donkey meat hotpot and beef offal dishes to spicy Sichuan food, Guangdong seafood and delicate Hangzhou dishes.
The renovated tourist street opened early this year.
It is nice to have supper there, with red lanterns and colorful lights decorating the Southern Song Dynasty-style (1127-1279) buildings. Green and blue LED projectors illuminate the mist rising from the river.
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