heaven vs hanzhou

Last weekend I took a little trip to a place called Hanzhou. Apparently a famous Chinese saying goes something like this: in the afterlife we have heaven, here on earth we have hanzhou. That's a pretty hefty legacy for a place to live up to. Let's see how it fares...

The trip started with a 1.5 hour train ride from Shanghai which gave me an opportunity to see the "country-side," or at least some non-metropolitan areas. There really wasn't much in the way of country-side. It was more like the trip from LA to San Diego, or San Francisco Pleasanton, not much down time between towns. But it was interesting, getting out just a little bit and there are fields behind a lot of homes. Not huge farms, just a small plot of cultivated land.

Now for Hanzhou. Hanzhou is famous for it's green tea. The most expensive type of green tea is supposed to come from the hills surrounding it, and touring a tea farm is a popular activity while visiting. So, we got in a taxi and went out to a tea plantation. The tea cultivation actually makes for beautiful scenery because the hills are all stepped with tea plants. I'm not enough of a conousier to be able to tell the difference between the good, the bad, and the ugly green teas (my taste leans more towards black, with cream and sugar), but I tried some while I was there just to make sure.

Here we have some people picking green tea leaves...

And this shot shows the fruits of that labor.

Now, something that's not written in the guide books (as far as I can tell) is that Hanzhou is also one of the most popular places to have some wedding pictures taken. At first I thought it was odd that so many people were getting married in the same place on the same day. At one time there was a line of 3 brides/grooms waiting to have their pictures taken in the same spot. Can you imagine waiting in full wedding relgaia for your picture to be taken? And then, as the first bride/groom duo left the perfect picture place, the bride hoisted up her dress only to reveal sneakers and jeans underneath...hmmm, maybe not FULL wedding regalia. I'm thinking that couple put on their gowns/tuxes, head over to the infamously beautiful Hanzhou and it's equally famous West Lake to take their wedding pictures on a day that is, in fact, not the wedding day. Maybe you just have your photographer on call, and whenever it's a beautiful day, you run for the scenic areas. It sounds like a reality TV show to me, so maybe that's not right. Who knows, but here are some shots that I took:

Here's our first bride/groom set, posing by an accommodating lotus tree in blossom.

Here are a some of the happy couples off to the next great photo opportunity. You can almost see one of the bride's jeans under her dress.

And now we have the chronicles of one bride and grooms search for that perfect picture:

First, the groom helps the bride into place while assistants dutifully pull out her skirt and veil.

The groom looks on as the bride holds her pose, the photographer readies himself, and the veil attendant gets ready to release the veil into the wind.

And finally, the perfect picture to capture your almost-wedding day.

Sigh, word on the street is that heaven's nice, but I think there are more glowing grooms and brides Hanzhou.