Laura Griffin Designs

On the misty morning of Day 7, we boarded our bus & headed towards West Lake. Here is a view from the bus along the way…

When we arrived at our destination, we boarded a small boat, and were on our way to view the most famous sites of the lake.

Nope – we didn’t board this one…

But one of these… *LOL*

To give you a little background… West Lake was originally a lagoon adjoining the Qiantang River. In the 8th century, the governor of Hangzhou had a dyke built that cut it off from the river completely.

The average depth of the lake is only 7.5 ft. Three of its sides are surrounded by mountains and one side by the city. The natural setting of strangely shaped peaks, serene forests, & dense foliage are enhanced by a treasury of sculpture and architectural features.

One of the most famous architectural features of the lake is the “Broken Bridge” located at the east end of Bai Causeway. [...]

At every tourist spot in China, you must be prepared to be accosted by street vendors. They sell everything you can think of. I can’t remember how many times I was asked if I wanted to buy a Rolex watch. That would be the fake kind, of course, at the bargain price of around $2. *LOL*

This woman was selling Groucho Marx style glasses that had noisemakers on either end so when you blew through a tube…they would come out of the moustache.

A number of street vendors sell food. We were advised never to buy food from them since it is cleaned with tap water (if even cleaned)…and the tap water is not drinkable in China. Beware of buying bottled water/drinks from street vendors as well. They tend to pick up empty bottles off of the street, refill them with tap water, and call them new. Yuck!

This woman was selling fruit from her baskets (or at least, I think that’s what it is?!) See “more” for closeups. [...]

While we were driving through China, we had to have seen at least 4-5 different nuclear power plants. They were obvious from their massive cooling towers. In some cases, they were located right next to the street and appeared to have no obvious security. Kinda strange.

After we returned to the US, we did some research to see if China is actually utilizing more nuclear power than the US. Surprisingly, mainland China has only nine nuclear power reactors in commercial operation. So apparently, we saw over half of them during our trip! Although you rarely see them in the US, over 100 nuclear reactors are in operation that provide almost 20% of our electricity.

Here are some pics of a couple of Chinese power plants that I took from the bus. This one is only yards away.

And here’s another from a distance… [...]

After being on our feet all day long for several days, we were all ready to experience a traditional Chinese foot massage! Luckily, our hotel had its very own Foot Reflexology Center that was open until 2 a.m. The prices were great (around $20 per hour) so we were sold on the idea.

We opted to have an hour-long reflexology massage followed by a traditional full-body massage. That’s pampering with a capital “P”! My friend Mimi joined us for the first hour & had a foot massage as well.

I’d never had a reflexology treatment before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. [...]

Wow. The Century Grand Hotel was by far the best hotel yet. When we arrived, we walked in the front door & had another one of those “how the heck can we be staying in such a nice place and have paid only $800 for this trip” moments. *LOL*

There was what appeared to be a beautiful Dale Chihuly in the entryway. It looked stunning from both sides. These hotel pics are a bit dark since it was at night…but hopefully you’ll get the idea.

I love how the curves of the ceiling repeat in the floor… (click on more) [...]