Item From the Past: Hangzhou

May 3, 1994.

Early on Saturday morning, we walked from Hangzhou University over the Geling Hills. Nice walk, leafy green, not many people, though there were a few old men out walking their birds, carrying them along in their cages. Down by the West Lake, famous for its role as an exemplar of natural beauty in Chinese verse, a lot of people were out for the day, both by the shore, and on little boats in every corner of the muddy-brown lake. Bottles and wrappers floated near the waterline.

In the afternoon, we took the No. 7 bus—a tin can—to Lurgyin Temple. The grounds featured a multitude of buddhas, most looking Indian in inspiration, some remarkably large, with huge feet and hands, carved into the side of a bluff. The place was nearly as popular as the West Lake, so the translation of the temple’s name, the Temple of Inspired Seclusion, didn’t apply any more, or at least on warm spring weekends.

After we boarded the No. 7 to return, a woman outside the bus went berserk. Middle-aged, red puffy in the face, a number of men around her restraining her. Don’t know what inspired her noisy, screeching outburst. Garden-variety lunacy? Somebody on the bus stole something from her? Or merely pissed at not getting on the bus, which was jam-packed? Naturally, her language was opaque to us. Just as well, I guess.

Had dinner with Renee, a Singaporean, and Kevin, an Australian studying Chinese at HU. He took us to a small place near the front gates of HU. Exceptionally good food: pork, tofu, veggies. He sounded a little tired of China—been there only a couple of months. His Chinese seemed good to me, however, and he pointed out some things we would not have known otherwise. For example, GA on a license plate means the car belongs to the army. Later, you start noticing how many expensive cars sport such plates. Closer at hand, Kevin knew about a dish of glazed apples served hot, which you dip in water to cool. Delicious.

Postscript: Later we ran into Renee, the Singaporean briefly mentioned above, in the Beijing main train station. We got her address in Singapore and visited her there a few months after that, and corresponded with her for a few more years, though unfortunately not any more. As for the Australian Kevin, I know nothing further.