Hangzhou

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They turn into “monsters” on stage

May 26, 2008 in Life in General | 4 comments

Va bene is an Italian word which implies “all is well” in English. In Hangzhou however, Va Bene is an Italian bar/restaurant with performing live band and caters primarily to expats and other local Chinese as well. It was there that we have met with four extra-ordinary Filipino people.

From Left: Rodel, Jenny, Rash, Maui

Maui, me and my wife

Elmer, Rash, Jenny

Because it’s still early, Elmer invited us to go to a nearby bar because one of his Pinoy friends is performing there. A few minutes walk and were already inside the bar. A few more minutes later, four Filipino guys approached Elmer which in turn, Elmer introduced to us. To be honest, I’m not really into meeting new people not because I don’t like meeting new faces, I simply find it awkward sometimes because I don’t know how would I react when being introduced. But then of course, the event that would follow will determine the proceeding conversations. To cut the story short, we exchange handshakes, a few his and hellos and the four went on to stage for their next set of performance.

It was then that the four seemingly ordinary people turned into extra-ordinary performers. Maui, a joker with a strong Cebuano accent started their set. I was so astounded with the range of his voice that if I hadn’t shaved that day, perhaps my beard and mustache will be raising with all the hairs in my body. Martin Nievera, with all his years in the music industry is way beyond compare. Rodel plucks his guitar like no Slash could have possibly ever done. Jenny sings songs with vocal range that could beat those of Regine Velasques and Mariah Carey. The set ended but Rash haven’t had her solo. According to his husband Mauwi, she hasn’t been feeling well due to the bad weather.

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The Leifeng Tower

May 25, 2008 in Life in General | 2 comments

History tells that the original Leifeng Pagoda was built during the Yuan dynasty (975 AD) at the order of the King of Wuyue in commemoration of the birth of his son. However, in the advent of Ming dynasty, Japanese pirates burned the tower to ashes leaving only its brick framework behind. After many years, the remaining brick structure has collapsed and was buried underneath the grounds. In 1999, the Government of Hangzhou and Zhejiang province decided to excavate the brick remains and ordered the re-construction of the Pagoda. On October of 2002, the construction of the new five-storey pagoda has been finished and remained opened to the viewing public.

Rumor has it that the remains of the Pagoda could “exorcise evils spirits, make people give birth to boys, and make silkworms thrive” for which the people of olden times were stealing bricks from its remains causing it to finally collapse. The remains of the brick structure (as well as the other treasures found in an underground chamber) are now being preserved and displayed at the base of the Leifeng Tower but something’s telling us that the people are still stealing the remaining bricks to turn into souvenir items because the layers of the bricks has been starting to collapse without the help of a few supporting poles but we didn’t have enough evidence to validate our theories.

On one of the five floors of the Leifeng Tower contains huge wooden carvings depicting the tale of a Bai Suzhen (White Snake) who, according to a Chinese Legend is a demon who transformed herself into a woman, falls in love with a mortal and was finally captured and imprisoned in the basement of the old tower. My wife, Elmer and I could not contain our amazements at the details of the wooden carvings causing simultaneous exchange of WOW!s and WHOAH!s to the three of us. Perhaps the others are coming from the nearby tourists as well.

: The escalator leading to the tower base.

: Bricks from the Old Pagoda

: The original Leifeng Tower

: Fighting fisheries!

: Bricks engraved with Chinese inscriptions

: In pursuit of Bai Suzhen

: Three Gods

: My wife gawking at the last set of the carved dioramas

From the entrance gates, the Leifeng Tower could be accessed through an escalator leading to the base of the tower. From hence, you could go to each layer through two elevators though we still prefer to take the stairs instead because of the enormously long queues of jubilant people. Regular entrance tickets are priced at 40 RMB per person.

Too many places, too little time

May 21, 2008 in Travel & Leisure | 18 comments

A Chinese friend once asked why when foreigners come to China, they would always and most often only wanted to see the Great Wall in Beijing. My response and explanation was rather simple – because when you’re outside China, you’re only aware of The Great Wall because it’s dubbed as one among the Seven Wonders of the World. Inside China however, critics place Hangzhou’s West Lake in the number one slot for tourist destinations.

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai.

Seeing a crowd like this makes you want to be a shark inside the tank and swallow them whole.

Our decision to visit Hangzhou (as opposed to visiting Beijing) has been a rewarding experience. Of course, there were a lot of things that we may have missed in Beijing (the Great Wall, the Great Pandas, et. al.) however, the beauty of Hangzhou, the West Lake and the so many sites around it are more than enough to compensate for what the China’s capital may have in store for us.

Due to the fact that railway tickets are usually being released to the public as early as ten days prior to the actual departure and the fact that May 1 is one of the major holidays in China, the tickets were almost depleted when we went to buy our tickets at Shanghai railway stations a the weekend before the Labor Day. Fortunately though, the supposedly smiling but already frowning English speaking ticketing staff has managed to find us seated tickets bound for Hangzhou at 3:00 in the afternoon of May 1.

Since our train tickets were issued in Shanghai, it only follows that we should board the trains in Shanghai. So Wednesday afternoon, I went to buy our Shanghai-bound tickets from the Kunshan Railway Station. I managed to secure us tickets scheduled at 7:30 in the morning of May 1. Perhaps there has been a little misunderstanding between me and the ticketing staff since I asked for 10:00 AM tickets (pronounced as SHI in Chinese) but maybe the lady heard my words as CHI (which means seven). Anyway, I thought it would be alright. At least we could avoid the holiday rush by leaving the place earlier.

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