Woke up bright and early in Hangzhou, a delightful town on the banks of West Lake. Like everything else here its big. But, because we are out in the country a bit we had blue skies and decent temperatures. We are only here for about 10 
hours so a busy day was in store for us. After breakfast we headed to Lingyin Park and Temple. This is an active Buddhist temple and given the traffic a popular tourist area. To get there we drove along the shore of the lake. The grounds and gardens were in perfect shape. Everything was lush and green and it was refreshing to see this side China. Being a Saturday there looked to be a lot of weddings going on. We finally arrived at our destination which was a park surrounded by modern condos and businesses.
We walked into the park and it was breathtaking. The temple and grounds date back to 326 A.D. Walking the path to the temple you find many depictions of the Buddha his disciples carved into the stone walls. These stones told centuries worth of stories. I was struck by how sadly beautiful it all was. Throughout China’s turbulent history these carvings survived. During the cultural revolution many of the Buddha were desecrated by having their heads 
cut off or being completely chipped away. Religion in China is allowed but if you are a Party Member then you cannot be religious. There is a line between being religious and superstition, for example there were many “weekend Buddhists” at the temple this weekend. Taoism is the other large scale religion here. Some dynasties preferred one over the other and there were many conflicts over the years. Currently there are about 24 million Taoists, 4 million Christians, 2 million Muslims. The Buddhists make up the largest group but it is not known exactly how many there are as it is so widespread.
We reached the center of the park and came to the temple complex. The complex had five large and brightly colored temple halls. Each hall had a different representation of the Buddha as well as his warrior protectors. One hall contained statues of the 108 disciples of Buddha. The largest statue of Buddha in China is located here. He is seated and vey solemn looking and about 80 feet tall. We entered another hall and came to another large Buddha being protected by six large warrior protectors. The temple is an active Buddhist Monastery and one the amazing things to see is a Buddhist Monk texting. This was an awe inspiring place to visit and I feel fortunate that our kids were able to experience such a majestic place.
Next we were off to a tea garden tour at Mei Jei Wu Village. This is were they grow the tea for the Communist Party and historically where the tea for the emperors was grown. If you have wine tasted at a vineyard than you know what this is about. We walked through a small hill town to the the growers house where we had yet another wonderful lunch and then the kids were given a private tour of the tea orchard. The tea is grown on the hillside in terraced rows. When you reach the top of the terrace you are rewarded with a beautiful view of the valley below and the quaint village located here. This is the first place we 
have been that has lacked the crush of people. We then walked to the tasting room where we were given a brief lesson in selecting green tea and the etiquette of drinking it. It was delicious tea and of course it was followed up by the obligatory sales pitch. After this wonderfully relaxing respite from the crowds it was time to board the bus and head to the airport to catch our fight to Xian. Traffic had gone from bad to worse and made it to the airport with little time to spare.
Now, everywhere we go the staff at the place get a quizzical yet frightful expression when they see our group of twenty-seven (half of which are children) come rolling in the door. The airport is no different. You can imagine what the baggage check process is like. On domestic flights China has a very strict forty-four kilogram limit. We stood around as our bags were weighed and the entire scene looked like a sporting event as every piece that went on under the limit was cheered like a Reggie Miller 3-point shot draining the bottom of the net. We made it well under the limit and we were off to our gate for a box lunch courtesy of Subway. Yes, Subway is here too. Eat, board, sleep a little and two hours later were are in Xian where it will be go-go-go again.
