Rice is Nice

On the train to Suzhou, we had to settle for a standing room. On the way back, even though we bought our tickets upon arrival in Suzhou, we had to return later than we'd hoped, and on a train that was decidedly down-market. But we'd bought our tickets from Shanghai to Hangzhou well in advance, and had comfortable seats for the two-hour trip. It's amazing, really, how hard it is to get train tickets here on short notice. I'm not sure why they don't just buy and add more cars, unless it's a problem of planning for the demand. Amtrak ought to study what China's doing right and mimic that, to boost demand on lightly traveled routes. I think that maybe if we could quadruple our population, that would work.

Before embarking, however, I ran a few errands. I bought gifts and got a haircut. The haircut, which I think is decent, cost Y30, or about USD3.50. The barber did have a look between confusion and disgust, though, as he worked his way through my thick, bushy, white-man hair. The first thing he did was go to town with the thinning shears.

Anyway, we got to Hangzhou, picked an inexpensive hotel out of a book, and went straight there. We made for a restaurant, Louwailou, that is recommend in my book and has been endorsed by our friend from school, Dean. Dean is a gourmand, really, so he likes everything. But he raved about some pork there, so we went. On the drive to Louwailou, around the north side of Xi Hu (West Lake, and the thing that makes Hangzhou stand out), it was clear why Gabe, the friend in Beijing, had spoken so highly of the place. The setting was beautiful, well-kept, and expensive-feeling. It is the only place that I've seen in China that could be spoken of in the same breath as La Jolla or Diamond Head. I'm sure the real estate here is already expensive, but there are plenty of reasons why Chinese with money, at least in that region (and there are plenty), would want to live near Xi Hu.

Our favorite city in China

Louwailou was delicious. We had experienced odd-tasting, scrawny meat thus far on the trip. Beggar chicken, which is stuffed with all sorts of goodies, wrapped in lotus leaves and clay and newspaper and opened at the table, was juicy and meaty. Dongpo pork was tasty, and in keeping with the Chinese preference for fatty pork. We had good vegetables, beer, something that seemed like pork rinds but better, and dried fish marinated in wine. http://www.louwailou.com.cn/english/INTRO.ASPSo far, Hangzhou is the most pleasing place I've been in a long time.

And Marco Polo liked it here, too, claiming there were 13,000 bridges