May Holiday, in Hangzhou!
We have a one-week holiday the first week of May, in honour of “Labour Day”. Well, that’s not exactly true. The Chinese Government has allotted 3 days, and then demanded that all its people WORK the weekend before the holiday so that we will then have 7 days off. That’s China for you – they giveth, and they taketh away! But, either way, I am off work for 7 days. No teaching, no lesson prep – yahoo!
I have decided to ‘play tourist’ this week in Hangzhou in order to conserve most of my savings for my upcoming trip to Canada and the U.S. in June.
Yesterday, I visited the “residence of Hu Xueyan” in downtown Hangzhou. Hu Xueyan was considered the “Bill Gates” of his time. He started as a banker, then owned a bank. As a businessman, he traded in everything from grain, real estate, import/export of arms and silk and even was a pawnbroker. This man also started the Huqing Yutan traditional Chinese medicine shop in Hangzhou. His private residence features gardens and stone structures around several fish-filled ponds, and caves. It is quite possibly the most beautiful private authentic Chinese residence I have seen so far, here in China.
Tags: Travel
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