Escape in Hangzhou » SWG

Evangelist to preach to 20,000 in Hangzhou – Update

SWG — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:14:36 +0000

Over the 2 day period March 20/21, 14,000 people came to hear Evangelist Luis Palau and the Rev. James Meeks preach in Hangzhou Chong Yi Church. The aim had been 20,000, but the rain didn’t evaporate on the way down and dampened the spirits.

http://www.palau.org/news/story/china_trip_successful_344

The Norway Woods Bar

SWG — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:55:42 +0000

I dont really see myself rushing off to Norway Woods of an evening, but should try some time. Charlie of G+ / Wahaha fame is running the place now, and so I am sure it is a pretty slick operation. But perhaps Norway Woods is just as suited for a cheeky afternoon, early evening drink.

A good half of the bar is outside – large downstairs terrace and good outdoor space above lets you see out easily. The location is on the way back from the Qiantang River on the Hupao Road junction with Jiuyaoshan Tunnel and so makes a fitting stop on the way home from your Meijiawu bicycle trip. The pints came a little slow – that’s only important for the first pint I guess, but the first is the most important… And the din that is Hupao Road can be a little oppressive at first. But if you have been in China for more than a week I bet you can block that out with a little mental effort.

At night there is supposed to be a band and a good vibe.

KLM does the decent thing

SWG — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:53:55 +0000

KLM will start direct flights between Amsterdam and Hangzhou from 8th May. These non stop flights between Amsterdam and Hangzhou with KLM are scheduled to depart Amsterdam on the flight number KL881 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays to reach Hangzhou the next day and KLM return flight number KL882 will take off from Hangzhou on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to arrive in Amsterdam on the same day.

Now all I need to know is about flights from Amsterdam to Midlands, UK and I can skip both London and Shanghai… Wow.

Valentino Restaurant

SWG — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 06:52:23 +0000

Probably the best thing about Valentino Italian Restaurant at Landison is the view looking out over Hangzhou as you stand at the urinal to pee. Well, the rest of the views are pretty good too. But nevertheless, that makes the restaurant the most expensive public toilet in Hangzhou. The other restaurants in the hotel are good: Unkai has always been a favourite, as has the Oriental. Conceptually, Italian food on the top of one of Hangzhou’s better hotels should be a good idea, so what is it about this restaurant that fails to hit the spot?

Without a little guidance, you might not find the place. Thankfully Landison thought of that and have a waitress to meet you on the 25th floor where the main lifts let you out. Round the corner there is another tiny lift that takes you up to the 26th and 27th floors. The layout of the restaurant is a little weird, cant put my finger on why, but at least there is a still a smoking section.

Some menus leave you stuck with what to choose because you want to eat it all, and some leave you hard pressed to pick anything because for one reason or the other, you don’t want anything on it. Valentino’s definitely falls in the latter category of the two. First courses offer a fair show: soups, a range of differing antipasti, couple of salads. We opted to share a couple of the antipasti – a meaty one and a fishy one. Both were good, served with good bread. The problem comes with the main course. Pasta, pizza and steak to choose from. There is some grilled fish too, but the MP in the price column always makes me a little worried. Of course, if you are in the mood for a bowl of pasta, that is great, although the one I make at home is pretty good too. The steak is expensive with many of the cuts well into 300RMB, which frankly, is unnecessary these days. After much deliberation, I chose a Lobster Risotto and my friend a minestrone soup. The lobster was small – probably illegal in some countries and rice quite salt. The wine list offered nothing much very unique looking, except for the pricing which favoured the restaurant.

The piano was tinkling away in the background, lighting good and service attentive without being in your face.

I do not pretend to be an experienced restaurant critic and so I have no idea why this place just doesn’t quite do it. Perhaps simply a lack of joie de vivre?

Valentino’s Italian Restaurant | 26th Floor, Landison Hotel, 333 Tiyuchang Road, Hangzhou.

The Hex of Hangzhou? 八卦田

SWG — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:48:36 +0000

It took a little research to find this place. I should probably have just put a quick question up on HangzhouExpat and had an answer in just a few hertz time, but perhaps early on Friday morning my own clock speed wasn’t quite up there. I had seen a photo of it – an octagonal field somewhere in south Hangzhou. I tried Wikipedia.org, but sadly the photos are no longer showing, so onto wikitravel.org (both good resources that need updating all the time – give it a go) and nothing there either. Strangely an image search in cn.bing.com for Hangzhou Hexagon came up with a name: 八卦田 (bagua tian | Octagonal field). Quite why ‘hexagon’ returned an ‘octagon’ beats me. 八卦田 into Google Maps and a way we go. Google Earth confused the matter a little as it shows two things that look like octagonal fields. Best just to go and look.
八卦田 spent most of the Eighties, Nineties, and Naughties as a fish farm, which is a bit of a pity considering this was where Song Emperor Gaozhong came to do his farming in 1145. In 2007, somebody high up must have been looking for his legacy and had the place re-invented. It wasn’t even for financial gain; the park is free to enter.

On a Friday afternoon it was a peaceful place. The happy little teahouse was thriving with chirping oldies strewing watermelon seeds just about everywhere except the bowls provided. There was one table in the middle of a feast of very local looking Hangzhou food – hongshao rou, bamboo shoots, fish heads, the usual. The rape is in full bloom and behind it some pretty purple looking things that made me think of linseed, but probably wasn’t. On one edge of the field is the Farmers Calendar etched out in stone detailing all the growing seasons, the stars, moon, and probably pi to 28 decimal places (apparently that was invented here too). The calendar was invented by Wang Zhen and recorded in his book finished in 1313. You cant so easily make out the octagonal shape from down here on earth; my friend even had to ask why it was called bagua. She got a kick in the ribs for that. There was nothing to be done except climb the hill.

Not before a quick wander into Yuhuangshan Town (玉皇山) for cigarettes. I asked two or three people about the ‘other’ bagua. I was kinda hoping there would be hushed tones, embarrassed looks and fidgeting, signalling that my advanced investigative satellite research had uncovered some covered-over secret landing site or something, but I’m afraid to disappoint you. Nobody had any idea what I was going about. Where were my horns? (Or maybe this is a really hush-hush facility, an Eyes Wide Shut playground for local officials?)

Of course, you always end up paying. The park farm is free, but the whole mountain is not. Got ya! Mr. Legacy is grinning. It is just 10Y to enter Yuhuangshan Scenic park, and I guess somebody has to pay for carrying all those immense stair stones up the hill. The place is littered with grottoes and temples and pavilions, allowing you to peak at one step over the West lake, and next step over Qiantang River. In Ciyun Temple (慈云宫) a few angry looking demons guard over the ‘Long Life Vegetarian Noodle’ place. The boss wasn’t anywhere to be found…

At the top, just a 20 min easy climb, you come to Zilai Cave (紫来洞), and this spectacular view from the terrace. What can I say?

Not liking to go back the way I came, and smelling on the wind a faint, but so definitely there, pint at the bottom, we went down the other side into the Jiuyaoshan tunnel cutting, and lo and behold on the corner with Hupao Road, was Norway Woods Bar. (挪威森林酒吧) The sun was still up and the pint beckoning to go down. Cheers.

Guo’s Villa | 郭庄

SWG — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:43:26 +0000

Guo’s Villa is one of those places you wish were a secret. On a slightly off-colour day, the weather I mean, there are few people there and sitting right on the bank of West Lake drinking green tea with a book or friend is one of those unique-to-Hangzhou ways of whiling away an afternoon.

Whoever Mr. Guo Shilin was, he must have had some cash and guanxi. His house was built in 1851 and to have the pull to get a spot right on West Lake he would have pulled some strings. Big strings. The house has smallish living quarters and large gardens stretching in all maybe 100 metres along the lake. The style is very much East China garden, with rockeries, ponds stacked with Koi, windows that somehow look like mirrors – except you are not in the reflection, solitude, and views, some manicured, some natural. Guo’s place faces absolutely east, so the morning sun rising must have been spectacular. From his err breakfast terrace Guo would have seen the whole of Sudi Causeway, an expanse of water and felt a cool breeze.

These days Guo’s Villa is a part of the extensive garden parks of Hangzhou that surround much of the Lake. Of course Sudi is still there, and in the hazy distance Hangzhou is shimmering.

Guo’s Villa, 28 Yanggongdi

郭庄杨公提28号

Longjing New Tea 1Y per Leaf

SWG — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:27:57 +0000

Despite the dustbowl that Hangzhou became on Sunday – something to do with the Gobi desert migrating to Japan – we decided to go for a wander and see of they had started picking the new tea yet. After all, what’s a bit of dust and pollution compared with a seriously respectable smoking habit. So off we went. It was fairly early in the afternoon and had a little trouble catching a taxi but then scooted, surprisingly quickly, thanks to the new tunnel under Lingyin Road, down to Nine Creeks Village (九溪村 | jiuxi cun) on Qiantang River. We had planned to take the taxi up into that first tea-drunk village as the walk is boring, but the road was chokka with cars the whole way. I couldn’t figure out if they were trying to park, or drive, or just organise an impromptu air horn requiem to google.cn. Whatever it was, it was time to walk, because the cars wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.
At that village, turn left up the Nine Creeks trail. I had on my trusty walking books, but felt a little like one of the Chelsea Tractor drivers you see in London – pristine polished Range Rovers quite unnecessary for dealing with the odd pavement hop – the highlight my boots got was kicking a few annoying children out the way, and the odd stepping stones over the streams. I guess there are 9 streams? Up into Longjing Village (龙井村), where we looked for some late lunch, but all of those people have quite rightly given up cooking. Why cook when you can live like a king selling expensive tea? Through Longjing and on up Manjuelong Road (满觉陇路) and into the higher part of Yangmeiling Village (杨梅岭村). At no point did we see any teapickers, nor any of the happy-faced old men crushing the tea into their electric woks. (Happiness having something to do with the title of this post).
The view from the top of Yangmeiling Village is good. We couldn’t really see much because of the dust storm, but trust me, it is pretty good. We settled into a restaurant overlooking the whole thing and ordered food. Of course we had the requisite boiled ‘local’ chicken, (农家本鸡煲 | nongjia benji bao) ‘local’ being a euphemism for tough. The poor thing had spent its short life running away from dogs and cars, little did it know that the real enemy was the hand that feeds it. However, like all these long-distance sprint chickens, it does really taste better.
And a cup of New Tea. To be fair, the 30Y for a cup is not expensive in the whole scheme of tea, but my glass had 33 leaves in it – I counted – so about 1Y per leaf. The price for a pound / jin? 2,500 – 3,000Y. Gulp. How many leaves in a pound? Our joyful restauranteur told us his was a little cheaper, “You know, nege de, but if you go into Longjing Village, maybe 3,000-5000Y”. There has got to be 5,000 leaves in a pound…
We had a choice after lunch. Take the Y3 bus down the hill into Beishan Road and walk to Maya, or walk back to the river. We took the bus, but if you’re interested, you can ask around the village for somebody to take you into a town by car – no meter, so haggle. As for the walk, done that before. From the top of Yangmeiling Village, head straight down into the village proper and keep going. Generally fewer people than the Nine Creeks route and about half way is a temple – Li’An – which can be shockingly quiet considering the land we live in.

Ground-breaking yo-yo tech to be used for Shanghai Hangzhou Maglev.

SWG — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:46:39 +0000

China’s crown rail project is in trouble again a mere 4 days after the 8th approval for go-ahead as ‘Netizens’ and pregnant mothers doubt financial wisdom of the project and repeat health concerns caused by electro-magnetic radiation. So the government plans to use a controversial new tech in the flagship train – the yoyo, which was apparently invented in China about 3000 years before Christ. This will reduce the cost of construction and remove any fears of radiation poisoning.

The technology has been used in the United Kingdom for the last thousand years or so, but is relatively new in China. Energy is redirected from the ferocity of the debate about whether or not a project should go ahead and fed into especially converted yoyo engines. The engines contain sophisticated one-way valves so that whatever way the argument goes, the ferocity (f) can still be used to create velocity (v) in the right direction using the formula:

where o is the number government officials in the debate, n the number of netizens, g is the guanxi levels of each debater, and of course f the ferocity. You can see the output of the new yoyo train engines in the chart below. (Courtesy Tsinghua University Debating Society)

Of course, a major problem of a pure Yoyo style engine in a modern functioning society is that they never get built due to a lack of agreement on how they should be built. The likelihood of a yoyo engine ever being built is dependent upon the following truth:

As you can see, the likelihood of a yoyo engine getting built is dependent on l > 0 and given the large number that is n, this is highly unlikely. Unless of course n and g can be reduced to nearly nothing, like in the good old days, by blocking the internet and locking up people. But then the Yoyo engine wouldn’t produce very much power and since it is n that is blocking the current maglev, with a low n factor, the maglev would get built and there would be no need for a Yoyo. Where are the good old days?

Debate stories showing f factor

Date	Note		f factor
12 March 2004	Official Denies Report on Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev - just thinking about it	China.org.cn	-5
9 Mar 2004	Maglev planned between Shanghai, Hangzhou	China Daily	4
22 Apr 2004	Pudong Shanghai Maglev Running Smoothly	China.org.cn	6
2 Dec 2004	Maglev may link Shanghai Hangzhou Yangtze River Delta Economic Forum says - 26 minute journey	China.org.cn	3
26 Jan 2005	Work to start on Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev line	ecnext.com	5
30 Sep 2005	China, Germany to start talks on Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev rail link	Forbes	3
14 Mar 2006	High-speed rail links approved: Wheels from Beijing to Shanghai, magnets from Shanghai to Hangzhou. 35 billion yuan project completed before 2010 World Expo Shanghai	China Daily	3
22 May 2006	Germans-Chinese working closely to increase speed of Maglev to 500kph says Angela Merkel	Poeple.com.cn	5
22 Dec 2006	Transrapid train crashes in Germany during tests, killing several	CNN	-10
11 Aug 2006	Fire breaks out on Pudong Maglev		-8
26 May 2007	Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev project suspended ... amid radiation concerns of expectant Ms Wang	China Daily	-5
29 May 2007	Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev axed - Shanghai-to-Hangzhou magnetically-levitated (maglev) train link has been canceled, according to state media reports. The official reason has been that the project is incompatible with the current political leadership's "harmonious society" push to create a China less riven by wage inequalities and social tension, AFP reported.	China Economic Review	-10
1 Mar 2008	Controversial maglev line given environmental green light by Shanghai authorities - minimal impact on local environment. Wang Qingun "It's still hard to say whether the maglev will be built, but if it is it won't be possible to complete it before 2010."	Xinhua	3
	Riots and protests against Maglev		-8
17 Aug 2008	E. China Maglev Project to Start in 2010. Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev project will now be 199.434 km long, nearly 25 km longer than previously reported. Of the total, 103.553 km will be inside Zhejiang. 450kph rural speeds, 200kph urban	CRI.cn	7
5 Nov 2008	Shanghai-Hangzhou express railway approved by the National Development and Reform Commission	Caijing	-3
6 Mar 2009	Shanghai Suspends Maglev Project - The maglev railway project adds questionable value, in light of an equally fast express train that will run on a similar route.	Caijing	-4
	Shanghai-Hangzhou express railway begins construction	Caijing	-3
14 Mar 2010	Maglev extension given green light - The Ministry of Railways chief planner, Zheng Jian, said yesterday China had agreed to build a Maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province.	Shanghai Daily	7
20 Mar 2010	Netizens’ doubts over new Maglev	People.com.cn	-4

List or articles and date of article showing progress of the Shanghai Hangzhou Maglev

Hangzhou Gets Weird Architecture

SWG — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:06:28 +0000

Architectural firm Stephen Holls has recently won the design competition to rebuild an old industrial site here in Hangzhou. This is properly space age looking stuff, although the design is supposed to be taken from a style of Chinese painting known as 山水 (Shanshui or Mountain Water Landscapes). The whole project will be about 25 hectares of construction on about 25 hectares, so it is huge. And will include flats and an exhibition centre. I am no architect so really dont want to make much more comment on this – but go read for yourself where this article came from:

Dezeen Magazine

A vertical gathering of the overall “bow tie” plan into a Water and Mountain tower alludes to the spirit of Hangzhou. From this central position in the large site, one tower branches towards tributary forms approaching the Oxygen sector while the other branches toward landscape forms at the Boiler sector. – From the website of the Architect

Hangzhou – Bangkok Direct flights start again

SWG — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:13:27 +0000

Just a quick fyi. Hainan Airlines is this week starting a twice a week direct service to Bangkok, so for those of you who need a quick beach bar fix, you’re back in luck. The scheduled times are a bit awkward, but it certainly beats hanging out in Shenzhen for a day because the flight in from Hangzhou was 3 hours late. And for you tough ones, you could go straight from airport to office…

	Hangzhou	Bangkok
Sunday, Wednesday	22.30	01.50	Next Day

	Bangkok	Hangzhou
Monday, Thursday	02.50	08.00