Hangzhou

I have the foggy idea that Marco Polo may have described Hangzhou as the loveliest city in Asia, though I can't say for sure if the idea originates with a reputable source. From what I can tell so far, the city is a wet one-- it has been raining since sometime the night before last and the air is hot and damp (I've invested in an umbrella, something that I never entirely saw the point of in Oregon, where it is rarely both hot and raining and the same time). Yesterday we walked around the West Lake (one of thirty-two or so West Lakes in China, but this is the famous one) and a pedestrian commercial district (pedestrian like "people traveling by foot," not like "unimaginative"). The lake seems like it must be very pretty, but it was so misty yesterday that we couldn't really see much of it (the mist was also pretty in its own right). Today, we might take a bus out to a Song Dynasty kiln where you can make your own pottery (Katrina will blow the other tourists out of the water with her mad pottery skillz) and a village where they grow China's famous Dragon Well tea.