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August 7, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

US ambassadors find city full of amazing people and adventures

Source: Shanghai Daily | August 7, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

TO promote Hangzhou as a world-class tourism destination and lure more foreign visitors, the Hangzhou Tourism Commission organized Hangzhou China Global Tour 2015. Two families, one from China and the other from the US, were selected as Hangzhou ambassadors to tour seven countries while promoting Hangzhou.

The tour started on August 1 and lasts 30 days. Before the trip the two families toured Hangzhou for eight days.

The global tour includes a visit to Dunhuang in northwestern China’s Gansu Province and then moves west along the Ancient Silk Road. It also includes stops on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini, Dubrovnik in Croatia as well as Venice, Geneva, Paris, Boston and New York.

Shanghai Daily invited the Capaldi family, the US ambassadors, to write a weekly column during the trip. Today we carry their first article about their eight days in Hangzhou.

Our family is honored to be the official US Ambassadors for the Hangzhou Global Tour 2015. Our very first visit to Hangzhou, (and China), has been so much more than just a wonderful vacation experience. With our new friends the Zhou Zhen family, the Chinese ambassadors, we have enjoyed exciting adventures, and created memories to last a lifetime.

The highlights of an enlightening and fun-filled week were discovering the amazing temples, museums, markets, restaurants and teahouses, and, most of all, the Hangzhou people. Although Hangzhou is one of the largest cities in China, it is not a city of strangers. Everyone greets a visitor with a friendly smile, and many of them say in English, “Welcome to China.”

We were warmly welcomed at the luxurious Wyndham Grand Plaza Royale, overlooking West Lake, and then visited the Hangzhou Chenghuang Pagoda, which offers an outstanding view of the lake and the skyline. Like a beautiful oasis in the middle of a busy city, it is, as a poet wrote, “… just as becoming, whether lightly made up or richly adorned.” In the evening, the breathtaking theatrical production of “Impressions West Lake” was performed on the water’s surface, and was truly spectacular.

We visited the Handcrafts Live Experience Museum, where skillful local artisans worked on centuries-old traditional crafts including umbrella frame construction, rice powder figurines, silk screening, wood carving, egg painting, paper cutting, bamboo weaving, chopstick carving, and scissor making.

Old Hefang Street gave us the opportunity to shop for beautiful fans, native instruments, and other souvenirs to remember our visit. In the countryside, at Longwu Tea Village, we were given straw hats and small baskets, and taught the art of tea mining. Hangzhou has long been regarded as the finest tea-producing region in China, and it was thrilling to stand between endless rows of tea bushes.

Most people don’t realize that the headquarters of Alibaba, the company that has revolutionized business on the Internet, was created and is located in Hangzhou. Since visitors are not allowed on the grounds, we were truly fortunate to observe young, intelligent, and highly creative men and women working together in a cheerful environment at the multi-billion dollar company. The Silk Road of today is definitely the Internet, and it commences, as it did so very long ago, in Hangzhou.

Other unforgettable experiences that awakened our senses were fishing at the Xixi National Wetland Park, hearing the mystical music of cicadas chirping in the trees, the sweet fragrance of burning incense in Jade Emperor Hill Temple, the peaceful ambiance of Innocent Ages bookstore, the elegantly colorful Wensli Silk Culture Museum, creating our own ceramic piece at the Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Kiln Museum, a traditional tea ceremony at Lakeside Tea House, and learning the basics of tai chi at the Rouzhiyi Tai Chi Martial Art Center.

Hangzhou is a city with a foundation of history and rich traditions, with one foot planted firmly in the past, and the other clearly stepping toward the future. Although it is a city of immense contrasts, there is an intense feeling of community spirit and pride. We find ourselves sharing that spirit and pride, along with a genuine love for the Hangzhou people. Now, as our Global Tour begins, we leave our hearts in the “Happiest City in China.”

Hangzhou


 

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