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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Village attracts trendy studios, clubs, eateries

By Xu Wenwen | August 7, 2013, Wednesday | Print Edition

Crossing the very ordinary Baile Bridge heading toward the splendid Lingyin Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples in China, travelers may be surprised to find tranquil and alluring Baile Bridge Village on the other side.

Youth hostels began to sprout up in the village, as Shanghai Daily reported, and hipsters began to discover the place and started opening yoga studios, clubs and other ventures there.

The village had only a handful of residents and had been very obscure — Hangzhou didn’t put the place on maps before 2009, and even many elderly residents of the city never heard of the place.

The village, settled in the 1950s, is surrounded by hills planted with tea, streams and low, flat houses. Some 400 households are now registered there, and some rent their houses out to youth hostels, teahouses, restaurants and studios.

Shanghai Daily again visits Baile Bridge Village, and finds some interesting new spots.

Jing Xin Yuan Yoga

The natural beauty of the village lured many to set up studios, including Ming Xinyang, a yoga coach in her mid-30s.

She opened her yoga studio in a three-story house in the middle of the village, with liana vines creeping along the courtyard and on walls.

“Yoga should be practiced amidst nature, with green surroundings and clean air,” she said.

A year ago, she gave up her career as a Hangzhou fashion store owner and invested her savings in the studio. “I learned a lot from yoga, and I want to share,” said Ming, who is a practicing Buddhist.

Besides ordinary yoga classes, the studio provides a “colon cleansing class” (shankha prakshalana). Participants practice yoga, skip food for a day, and drink water and juice.

After class, there’s also oil massage and meditation.

Address: No. 111, Baile Bridge

Tel: (0571) 8513-1219

West Lake Elite Club

Lots of elite clubs dedicated to such pursuits as art and food are nestled in Hangzhou’s scenic areas. They usually charge high prices for accommodations and memberships and do not allow non-members to enter, but West Lake Elite Club prides itself on being different.

It welcomes anyone to have a look and does not charge for membership. It provides tea and simple organic meals.

Yet it boasts that it lures many elites, including celebrities and merchants, who regularly organize activities such as sharing reading experiences and studying painting and opera.

“My expectation is to create an artistic club of ‘elites’ who are of spiritually rich,” said organizer Xu Lu.

Address: No. 19, Baile Bridge

Tel: (0571) 8652-5101

Moku Moku Tei Japanese Restaurant

If Baile Bridge Village were a big family, then Moku Moku Tei Japanese restaurant would be a delicately dressed and well-behaved daughter noteworthy for exquisite food and decor.

Run by a Chinese man and his Japanese wife, the restaurant makes traditional Japanese cuisine, meaning no California roll or sushi rolls with rice on the outside, but traditional Japanese udon (noodles), ochazuke (rice in tea soup) and roasted fish.

The restaurant has a rather small menu with about 20 cooked dishes as well as sashimi, with each dish artfully arranged in refined, color-coordinated plates and bowls.

The three appetizers are free to every customer: Pink shrimp is presented in a pink crystal bowl, white scallop adductor comes in a blue bowl and brown peanuts are placed in a green bowl.

The ochazuke comes as a plum-pattern ceramic pot of tea soup, a red-and-black lacquer bowl of rice and a set of wooden tableware.

Owner Li Sheng recommends groups try their kaiseki ryori, traditional multi-course Japanese haute cuisine, including appetizers, eight main dishes, dessert and tea. The eight main dishes cover many Japanese cooking methods.

For lunch, Moku Moku Tei offers only sashimi and the chef’s specials. Customers are charged a 30 yuan (US$4.9) service fee each.

Address: No. 72, Baile Bridge

Tel: (0571) 8694-5699

 

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